HVH-SOS 
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THE  HOBO 

THE  SOCIOLOGY  OF  THE  HOMELESS  MAN 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 

THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOR  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK 
THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS,  LONDON 
THE  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA,  TOKYO 
THE  MISSION  BOOK  COMPANY,  SHANGHAI 


THE  HOBO 

THE  SOCIOLOGY  OF  THE 
HOMELESS  MAN 

S 

By  NELS  ANDERSON 


A  STUDY  PREPARED  FOR  THE  CHICAGO 
COUNCIL  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES  UNDER 
THE  DIRECTION  OF  THE  COMMITTEE 
ON  HOMELESS  MEN 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO  '  ILLINOIS 


COPYRIGHT  1923  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 
PUBLISHED  MAY  1923 


COMPOSED  AND  PRINTED  BY 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A. 


EDITOR’S  PREFACE 


THE  present  volume  is  intended  to  be  the  first  of 
a  series  of  studies  of  the  urban  community  and 
of  city  life.  The  old  familiar  problems  of  our  com¬ 
munal  and  social  life — poverty,  crime,  and  vice — 
assume  new  and  strange  forms  under  the  conditions 
of  modern  urban  existence.  Inherited  custom,  tradi¬ 
tion,  all  our  ancient  social  and  political  heritages — 
human  nature  itself — have  changed  and  are  changing 
under  the  influence  of  the  modern  urban  environ¬ 
ment. 

The  man  whose  restless  disposition  made  him  a 
pioneer  on  the  frontier  tends  to  become  a  “homeless 
man” — a  hobo  and  a  vagrant — in  the  modern  city. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  their  biological  predisposi¬ 
tions,  the  pioneer  and  the  hobo  are  perhaps  the 
same  temperamental  type;  from  the  point  of  view  of 
their  socially  acquired  traits,  they  are  something 
quite  different. 

The  city,  more  than  any  other  product  of  man’s 
genius  and  labors,  represents  the  effort  of  mankind  to 
remake  the  world  in  accordance  with  its  wishes,  but 
the  city,  once  made,  compels  man  to  conform  to  the 
structure  and  the  purposes  he  himself  has  imposed 
upon  it.  If  it  is  true  that  man  made  the  city, 
it  is  quite  as  true  that  the  city  is  now  making 
man.  That  is  certainly  a  part  of  what  we  mean 
when  we  speak  of  the  “urban”  as  contrasted  with 
the  “rural”  mind.  In  any  case,  it  is  true  that  within 
the  circle  of  these  two  tendencies,  man’s  disposition, 

[v 


EDITOR’S  PREFACE 


•  •  • 
vm 

the  city  and  its  life,  will  at  least  be  comparable  with 
the  natural  areas  and  the  problematic  aspects  of 
other  American  cities.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  purpose  of 
these  studies  to  emphasize  not  so  much  the  partic¬ 
ular  and  local  as  the  generic  and  universal  aspects 
of  the  city  and  its  life,  and  so  make  these  studies  not 
merely  a  contribution  to  our  information  but  to  our 
permanent  scientific  knowledge  of  the  city  as  a 
communal  type. 


Robert  E.  Park 


COMMITTEE’S  PREFACE 


THE  Committee  on  Homeless  Men  was  organized 
by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Chicago 
Council  of  Social  Agencies  on  June  16,  1922,  to  study 
the  problem  of  the  migratory  casual  worker.  Its 
members  included  men  and  women  in  contact  with 
the  problem  of  homeless  men  from  different  points  of 
view. 

Mr.  Nels  Anderson,  a  graduate  student  in  soci¬ 
ology  in  the  University  of  Chicago,  was  selected 
to  make  the  study.  Mr.  Anderson  was  already 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  life  of  the  migratory 
casual  worker.  He  had  shared  their  experiences 
“on  the  road”  and  at  work,  and  had  visited  the 
Hobohemian  areas  of  many  of  the  large  western 
cities.  In  the  summer  of  1921,  he  made  a  study  of 
400  migrants.  Early  in  1922,  through  the  generous 
assistance  and  encouragement  of  Dr.  William  A. 
Evans,  Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman,  and  Joel  D.  Hunter,  he 
began  a  study  of  homeless  men  in  Chicago,  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  a  field-study  course  at  the  University  of 
Chicago. 

The  assumption  of  this  study  by  the  Chicago 
Council  of  Social  Agencies,  in  co-operation  with 
the  Juvenile  Protective  Association,  enabled  an 
enlargement  of  its  scope.1 

The  object  of  this  inquiry,  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  Committee,  was  to  secure  those  facts  which 
would  enable  social  agencies  to  deal  intelligently  with 
the  problems  created  by  the  continuous  ebb  and  flow, 

1 A  part  of  the  investigation  relating  to  the  effects  upon  the  boy  of  associa¬ 
tion  with  tramps,  especially  made  for  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association,  is  not 
included  in  this  report,  but  will  appear  in  an  early  number  of  the  Journal 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology . 


[ix 


X 


COMMITTEE’S  PREFACE 


out  of  and  into  Chicago,  of  tens  of  thousands  of 
foot-loose  and  homeless  men.  Only  through  an 
understanding  both  of  the  human  nature  of  the 
migratory  casual  worker,  and  of  the  economic  and 
social  forces  which  have  shaped  his  personality,  could 
there  be  devised  any  fundamental  program  for  social 
agencies  interested  in  his  welfare. 

Earlier  studies  of  the  migratory  casual  workers  in 
the  United  States  have  been  limited  almost  entirely 
to  statistical  investigation.  In  the  present  inquiry 
a  more  intensive  study  of  cases  was  decided  upon  in 
preference  to  an  extensive  statistical  survey.  For 
the  past  twelve  months  Mr.  Anderson  lived  in  Hobo- 
hemia,  and  in  a  natural  and  informal  way  secured 
upward  of  sixty  life-histories,  and  collected,  in  addi¬ 
tion,  a  mass  of  documents  and  other  materials  which 
are  listed  in  Appendix  B.  Mr.  Anderson  has  had, 
in  certain  parts  of  the  field  work,  the  assistance  of 
C.  W.  Allen,  L.  G.  Brown,  G.  F.  Davis,  B.  W.  Bridg¬ 
man,  F.  C.  Frey,  E.  H.  Koster,  G.  S.  Sobel,  H.  D. 
Wolf,  and  R.  N.  Wood,  students  in  sociology  at  the 
University  of  Chicago,  and  has  utilized  the  results 
of  past  studies  of  this  subject  by  students  in  the 
department. 

The  Committee  on  Homeless  Men  held  many 
meetings  which  were  devoted  to  outlining  the  plan 
of  investigation,  to  reports  upon  the  progress  of  field 
work,  and  to  the  drafting  of  the  findings  and  recom¬ 
mendations  which  appear  as  Appendix  A. 

The  Committee  and  the  author  are  indebted  to 
the  social  agencies  and  to  the  many  persons  who 
co-operated  in  furnishing  data  for  this  investigation. 
They  desire  also  to  express  their  appreciation  to 
Professor  Robert  E.  Park  for  the  inclusion  of  this 


COMMITTEE’S  PREFACE 


xi 


volume  as  the  first  of  a  series  of  studies  on  the  urban 
community  of  which  he  is  editor,  and  for  his  services 
in  the  preparation  of  the  manuscript  for  publication. 

Ernest  W.  Burgess,  Chairman 
University  of  Chicago 
Wilfred  S.  Reynolds,  Secretary 
Director,  Chicago  Council  of  Social 
Agencies 

Brigadier  John  E.  Atkins 
Salvation  Army,  Workingman’s 
Palace 

Miss  Jessie  Binford 

Juvenile  Protective  Association 
Mrs.  Joseph  T.  Bowen 

Juvenile  Protective  Association 
Frederick  S.  Deibler 

Advisory  Board,  Illinois  Free  Em¬ 
ployment  Service 

T.  Arnold  Hill 

Chicago  Urban  League 
Joel  D.  Hunter 

United  Charities  of  Chicago 
M.  J.  Karpf 

Jewish  Social  Service  Bureau 

George  B.  Kilbey 

Chicago  Christian  Industrial  League 

Rev.  Moses  E.  Kiley 

Central  Charity  Bureau 
Brigadier  David  Miller 
Salvation  Army 
Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman 

Chicago  Department  of  Health 
Willoughby  G.  Walling 

President,  Chicago  Council  of  Social 
Agencies 


\ 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PART  L  HOBOHEMIA,  THE  HOME  OF 
THE  HOMELESS  MAN 

PAGE 

List  of  Illustrations . xv 

CHAPTER 

I.  Hobohemia  Defined .  3 

II.  The  Jungles:  The  Homeless  Man  Abroad  .  16 

III.  The  Lodging-House:  The  Homeless  Man  at 

Home . 27 

IV.  “Getting  By”  in  Hobohemia . 40 

PART  II.  TYPES  OF  HOBOS 

CHAPTER 

V.  Why  Do  Men  Leave  Home  ? . 61 

VI.  The  Hobo  and  the  Tramp . 87 

VII.  The  Home  Guard  and  the  Bum . 96 

VIII.  Work . 107 

PART  III.  THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 

CHAPTER 

IX.  Health . 125 

X.  Sex  Life  of  the  Homeless  Man . 137 

XI.  The  Hobo  as  a  Citizen . 150 

PART  IV.  HOW  THE  HOBO  MEETS 
HIS  PROBLEM 

CHAPTER 

XII.  Personalities  of  Hobohemia . 171 

XIII.  The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Hobo  .  .  .  185 

XIV.  Hobo  Songs  and  Ballads . 194 

XV.  The  Soap  Box  and  the  Open  Forum  .  .  .  215 

XVI.  Social  and  Political  Hobo  Organization  .  .  230 

XVII.  Missions  and  Welfare  Organizations  .  .  .  250 

APPENDIXES 

A.  Summary  of  Findings  and  Recommendations  .  .  265 

B.  Documents  and  Materials  . 281 

C.  Bibliography . 291 

Index . 299 

[xiii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 

PAGE 

A  Jungle  Camp . io 

Summer  Resorting  behind  Field  Museum,  Chicago  .  io 

A  Dining-Room  on  the  “Main  Stem” . 34 

Employment  Bureaus . 34 

Leaders  in  the  Educational  Movement . 88 

A  Popular  Resort  in  Hobohemia . 88 

Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman . 172 

Members  of  the  Jefferson  Park  Intelligentsia  .  .  186 

The  Hobo  Reads  Progressive  Literature  ....  186 

The  Soap-Box  Orator — The  Economic  Argument  .  .  216 

An  Outdoor  Mission  Meeting — The  Religious  Plea  .  216 

James  Eads  How . 236 

A  Free  Lunch  at  a  Mission . 258 

A  Winter’s  Night  in  a  Mission . 258 


[xv 


PART  I 

HOBOHEMIA,  THE  HOME  OF 
THE  HOMELESS  MAN 


CHAPTER  I 

HOBOHEMIA  DEFINED 


All  that  Broadway  is  to  the  actors  of  America,  West  Madison 
is  to  its  habitues — and  more.  Every  institution  of  the  Rialto  is 
paralleled  by  one  in  West  Madison.  West  Madison  Street  is 
the  Rialto  of  the  hobo. 

The  hobos,  themselves,  do  not  think  of  Madison  Street  as 
the  Rialto;  they  call  it  “The  Main  Stem,”  a  term  borrowed 
from  tramp  jargon,  and  meaning  the  main  street  of  the  town. 
“The  Main  Stem”  is  a  more  fitting  term,  perhaps,  than  the 
Rialto,  but  still  inadequate.  West  Madison  Street  is  more  than 
a  mere  Rialto,  more  than  the  principal  hobo  thoroughfare  of 
Chicago.  It  is  the  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  the  Wilhelmstrasse 
of  the  anarchy  of  Hobohemia. — From  an  unpublished  paper  on 
the  hobo  by  Harry  M.  Beardsley,  of  the  Chicago  Daily  News, 
March  20,  1917. 

A  SURVEY  of  the  lodging-house  and  hotel  popula¬ 
tion,  supplemented  by  the  census  reports  of  the 
areas  in  which  they  live,  indicates  that  the  number  of 
homeless  men  in  Chicago  ranges  from  30,000  in  good 
times  to  75,000  in  hard  times. 

We  may  say  that  approximately  one-third  of 
these  are  permanent  residents  of  the  city.  The  other 
two-thirds  are  here  today  and  gone  tomorrow.  When 
work  is  plentiful  they  seldom  linger  in  the  city  more 
than  a  week  at  a  time.  In  winter  when  jobs  are 
scarce,  and  it  takes  courage  to  face  the  inclement 
weather,  the  visits  to  town  lengthen  to  three  weeks 
and  a  month.  From  300,000  to  500,000  of  these 
•  migratory  men  pass  through  the  city  during  the 
course  of  a  normal  year. 

A  still  larger  number  are  wanderers  who  have 
spent  their  days  and  their  strength  on  the  “long, 
gray  road”  and  have  fled  to  this  haven  for  succor. 
They  are  Chicago’s  portion  of  the  down-and-outs. 


[3 


4 


THE  HOBO 


An  investigation  of  1,000  dependent,  homeless  men  made  in 
Chicago  in  1911  indicated  that  254,  or  more  than  one-fourth  of 
the  1,000  examined,  were  either  temporarily  crippled  or  maimed. 
Some  89  of  this  1,000,  or  9  per  cent,  were  manifestly  either  insane, 
feeble-minded,  or  epileptic.  This  did  not  include  those  large 
numbers  of  border-line  cases  in  which  vice  or  an  overwhelming 
desire  to  wander  had  assumed  the  character  of  a  mania. 

Homeless  men  are  largely  single  men.  Something  like 
75  per  cent  of  the  cases  examined  were  single,  while  only  9  per 
cent  admitted  they  were  married. 

“main  stems” 

Every  large  city  has  its  district  into  which  these 
homeless  types  gravitate.  In  the  parlance  of  the 
“road”  such  a  section  is  known  as  the  “stem”  or 
the  “main  drag.”  To  the  homeless  man  it  is  home, 
for  there,  no  matter  how  sorry  his  lot,  he  can  find 
those  who  will  understand.  The  veteran  of  the 
road  finds  other  veterans;  the  old  man  finds  the 
aged;  the  chronic  grouch  finds  fellowship;  the 
radical,  the  optimist,  the  crook,  the  inebriate,  all 
find  others  here  to  tune  in  with  them.  The  wanderer 
finds  friends  here  or  enemies,  but,  and  that  is  at 
once  a  characteristic  and  pathetic  feature  of  Hobo- 
hemia,  they  are  friends  or  enemies  only  for  the  day. 
They  meet  and  pass  on. 

Hobohemia  is  divided  into  four  parts — west, 
south,  north,  and  east — and  no  part  is  more  than 
five  minutes  from  the  heart  of  the  Loop.  They  are 
all  the  “stem”  as  they  are  also  Hobohemia.  This 
four-part  concept,  Hobohemia,  is  Chicago  to  the 
down-and-out. 

THE  “SLAVE  MARKET” 

To  the  men  of  the  road,  West  Madison  Street  is 
the  “slave  market.”  It  is  the  slave  market  because 


HOBOHEMIA 


5 


here  most  of  the  employment  agencies  are  located. 
Here  men  in  search  of  work  bargain  for  jobs  in 
distant  places  with  the  ‘‘man  catchers”  from  the 
agencies.  Most  of  the  men  on  West  Madison  Street 
are  looking  for  work.  If  they  are  not  seeking  work 
they  want  jobs,  at  least;  jobs  that  have  long  rides 
thrown  in.  Most  of  the  men  seen  here  are  young, 
at  any  rate  they  are  men  under  middle  age;  restless, 
seeking,  they  parade  the  streets  and  scan  the  signs 
chalked  on  the  windows  or  smeared  over  colored 
posters.  Eager  to  “ship”  somewhere,  they  are 
generally  interested  in  a  job  as  a  means  to  reach  a 
destination.  The  result  is  that  distant  jobs  are  in 
demand  while  good,  paying,  local  jobs  usually  go 
begging. 

West  Madison,  being  a  port  of  homeless  men, 
has  its  own  characteristic  institutions  and  pro¬ 
fessions.  The  bootlegger  is  at  home  here;  the  dope 
peddler  hunts  and  finds  here  his  victims;  here  the 
professional  gambler  plies  his  trade  and  the  “jack 
roller,”  as  he  is  commonly  called,  the  man  who  robs 
his  fellows,  while  they  are  drunk  or  asleep;  these  and 
others  of  their  kind  find  in  the  anonymity  of  this 
changing  population  the  freedom  and  security  that 
only  the  crowded  city  offers. 

The  street  has  its  share  also  of  peddlers,  beggars, 
cripples,  and  old,  broken  men;  men  worn  out  with 
the  adventure  and  vicissitudes  of  life  on  the  road. 
One  of  its  most  striking  characteristics  is  the  almost 
complete  absence  of  women  and  children;  it  is  the 
most  completely  womanless  and  childless  of  all  the 
city  areas.  It  is  quite  definitely  a  man’s  street. 

West  Madison  Street,  near  the  river,  has  always 
been  a  stronghold  of  the  casual  laborer.  At  one 


6 


THE  HOBO 


time  it  was  a  rendezvous  for  the  seamen,  but  of  late 
these  have  made  South  Chicago  their  haven.  Even 
before  the  coming  of  the  factories,  before  family  life 
had  wholly  departed,  this  was  an  area  of  the  home¬ 
less  man.  It  will  continue  to  be  so,  no  doubt,  until 
big  businesses  or  a  new  union  depot  crowds  the  hobo 
out.  Then  he  will  move  farther  out  into  that  area 
of  deteriorated  property  that  inevitably  grows  up 
just  outside  the  business  center  of  the  city,  where 
property,  which  has  been  abandoned  for  residences, 
has  not  yet  been  taken  over  by  businesses,  and  where 
land  values  are  high  but  rents  are  low. 

Jefferson  Park,  between  Adams  and  Monroe  and 
west  of  Throop  Street,  is  an  appanage  of  the  “slave 
market.”  It  is  the  favorite  place  for  the  “bos”  to 
sleep  in  summer  or  to  enjoy  their  leisure,  relating 
their  adventures  and  reading  the  papers.  On  the 
“stem”  it  is  known  as  “Bum  Park,”  and  men  who 
visit  it  daily  know  no  other  name  for  it.  A  certain 
high  spot  of  ground  in  the  park  is  generally  designated 
as  “Crumb  Hill.”  It  is  especially  dedicated  to 
“drunks.”  At  any  rate,  the  drunk  and  the  drowsy 
seem  inevitably  to  drift  to  this  rise  of  ground.  In 
fact,  so  many  men  visit  the  place  that  the  grass 
under  the  trees  seems  to  be  having  a  fierce  struggle 
to  hold  its  own.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  the 
men  who  go  to  “Bum  Park”  are  for  the  most  part 
sober  and  well  behaved.  It  is  too  far  out  for  the 
more  confirmed  Madison  Street  bums  to  walk.  The 
town  folks  of  the  neighborhood  use  the  park,  to  a 
certain  extent,  but  the  women  and  children  of  the 
neighborhood  are  usually  outnumbered  by  the  men 
of  the  road,  who  monopolize  the  benches  and  crowd 
the  shady  places. 


HOBOHEMIA 


7 


hobohemia’s  playground 

The  thing  that  characterizes  State  Street  south 
of  the  Loop  is  the  burlesque  show.  It  is  here  that 
the  hobo,  seeking  entertainment,  is  cheered  and 
gladdened  by  the  “bathing  beauties”  and  the  ori¬ 
ental  dancers.  Here,  also,  he  finds  improvement  at 
the  hands  of  the  lady  barbers,  who,  it  is  reported, 
are  using  these  men  as  a  wedge  to  make  their  way 
into  a  profitable  profession  that  up  to  the  present 
time  has  belonged  almost  wholly  to  men. 

South  State  Street  differs  from  West  Madison  in 
many  particulars.  For  one  thing  there  are  more 
women  here,  and  there  is  nothing  like  so  complete 
an  absence  of  family  life.  The  male  population,  like¬ 
wise,  is  of  a  totally  different  complexion.  The 
prevailing  color  is  an  urban  pink,  rather  than  the 
rural  grime  and  bronze  of  the  man  on  the  road. 
There  are  not  so  many  restless,  seeking  youngsters. 

Men  do  not  parade  the  streets  in  groups  of  threes 
and  fours  with  their  coats  or  bundles  under  their 
arms.  There  are  no  employment  offices  on  this 
street.  They  are  not  needed.  Nobody  wants  to  go 
anywhere.  When  these  men  work  they  are  content 
to  take  some  short  job  in  the  city.  Short,  local  jobs 
are  at  a  premium.  Many  of  these  men  have  petty 
jobs  about  the  city  where  they  work  a  few  hours  a 
day  and  are  able  to  earn  enough  to  live.  In  winter 
many  men  will  be  found  in  the  cheap  hotels  on 
South  State,  Van  Buren,  or  South  Clark  streets  who 
have  been  able  to  save  enough  money  during  the 
summer  to  house  themselves  during  the  cold  weather. 
State  Street  is  the  rendezvous  of  the  vagabond  who 
has  settled  and  retired,  the  “home  guard”  as  they 
are  rather  contemptuously  referred  to  by  the  tribe 


8 


THE  HOBO 


of  younger  and  more  adventurous  men  who  still 
choose  to  take  the  road. 

The  white  man’s  end  of  the  south  section  of 
Hobohemia  does  not  extend  south  of  Twelfth  Street. 
From  that  point  on  to  about  Thirtieth  Street  there 
is  an  area  that  has  been  taken  over  by  the  colored 
population.  Colored  people  go  much  farther  south, 
but  if  there  are  any  homeless  men  in  the  “Black 
Belt,”  they  are  likely  to  be  found  along  State  Street, 
between  Twenty-second  and  Thirtieth.  The  Douglas 
Hotel,  in  this  region,  is  a  colored  man’s  lodging-house. 

To  the  south  and  southwest  are  the  railroad 
yards.  In  summer  homeless  men  find  these  yards 
a  convenient  place  to  pass  the  night.  For  those 
who  wish  to  leave  the  city,  they  are  the  more  acces¬ 
sible  than  the  yards  on  the  north  and  west.  The 
railroad  yard  is,  in  most  places,  one  of  the  hobo’s 
favorite  holdouts.  It  is  a  good  place  to  loaf.  There 
are  coal  and  wood  and  often  vacant  spaces  where  he 
can  build  fires  and  cook  food  or  keep  warm.  This 
is  not  so  easily  done  in  Chicago  where  the  tramp’s 
most  deadly  enemy,  the  railroad  police,  are  numerous 
and  in  closer  co-operation  with  the  civil  authorities 
than  in  most  cities.  In  spite  of  this,  hobos  hang 
about  the  yards. 

“bughouse  square” 

On  the  north  side  of  the  river,  Clark  Street  below 
Chicago  Avenue  is  the  “stem.”  Here  a  class  of 
transients  have  drifted  together,  forming  a  group 
unlike  any  in  either  of  the  other  areas  of  Hobohemia. 
This  is  the  region  of  the  hobo  intellectuals.  This 
area  may  be  described  as  the  rendezvous  of  the 
thinker,  the  dreamer,  and  the  chronic  agitator. 


HOBOHEMIA 


9 


Many  of  its  denizens  are  “home  guards.”  Few 
transients  ever  turn  up  here;  they  do  not  have  time. 
They  alone  come  here  who  have  time  to  think* 
patience  to  listen*  or  courage  to  talk.  Washington 
Square  is  the  center  of  the  northern  area.  To  the 
“bos”  it  is  “  Bughouse  Square.”  Many  people  do  not 
know  any  other  name  for  it.  This  area  is  as  near 
to  the  so-called  Latin  Quarter  as  the  hobo  dare  come. 
“Bughouse  Square”  is,  in  fact,  quite  as  much  the 
stronghold  of  the  more  or  less  vagabond  poets, 
artists,  writers,  revolutionists,  of  various  types  as  of 
the  go-abouts.  Among  themselves  this  region  is 
known  as  the  “village.” 

Bohemia  and  Hobohemia  meet  at  “Bughouse 
Square.”  On  Sundays  and  holidays,  any  evening, 
in  fact,  when  the  weather  permits,  it  will  be  teeming 
with  life.  At  such  times  all  the  benches  will  be 
occupied.  On  the  grass  in  the  shade  of  the  trees 
men  sit  about  in  little  groups  of  a  dozen  or  less. 
The  park,  except  a  little  corner  to  the  southeast 
where  the  women  come  to  read,  or  knit,  or  gossip, 
while  the  children  play,  is  completely  in  possession 
of  men.  A  polyglot  population  swarms  here. 
Tramps,  and  hobos — yes,  but  they  are  only  scat- 
teringly  represented.  Pale-faced  denizens  of  the 
Russian  tearooms,  philosophers  and  enthusiasts 
from  the  “Blue  Fish,”  brush  shoulders  with  kindred 
types  from  the  “Dill  Pickle,”  the  “Green  Mask,” 
the  “Gray  Cottage.”  Free-lance  propagandists  who 
belong  to  no  group  and  claim  no  following,  non¬ 
conformists,  dreamers,  fakers,  beggars,  bootleggers, 
dope  fiends — they  are  all  here. 

Around  the  edges  of  the  Square  the  curbstone 
orators  gather  their  audiences.  Religion,  politics, 


10 


THE  HOBO 


science,  the  economic  struggle,  these  are  the  princi¬ 
pal  themes  of  discussion  in  this  outdoor  forum. 
Often  there  are  three  or  four  audiences  gathered  at 
the  same  time  in  different  parts  of  the  park,  each 
carrying  on  a  different  discussion.  One  may  be 
calling  miserable  sinners  to  repent,  and  the  other 
denouncing  all  religion  as  superstition.  Opposing 
speakers  frequently  follow  each  other,  talking  to  the 
same  audience.  In  this  aggregation  of  minds  the 
most  striking  thing  is  the  variety  and  violence  of 
the  antipathies.  There  is,  notwithstanding,  a  gen¬ 
erous  tolerance.  It  is  probably  a  tolerance  growing 
out  of  the  fact,  that,  although  everyone  talks  and 
argues,  no  one  takes  the  other  seriously.  It  helps 
to  pass  the  time  and  that  is  why  folks  come  to 
“Bughouse  Square.” 

To  the  hobo  who  thinks,  even  though  he  does  not 
think  well,  the  lower  North  Side  is  a  great  source  of 
comfort.  On  the  North  Side  he  finds  people  to 
whom  he  can  talk  and  to  whom  he  is  willing  to 
listen.  Hobos  do  not  generally  go  there  to  listen, 
however,  but  burning  with  a  message  of  which  they 
are  bound  to  unburden  themselves.  They  go  to 
speak,  perhaps  to  write.  Many  of  them  are  there 
to  get  away  from  the  sordidness  of  life  in  other 
areas  of  Hobohemia. 

a  “jungle”  on  the  lake  front 

Grant  Park,  east  of  Michigan  Avenue,  is  a  loafing 
place  for  hobos  with  time  on  their  hands.  They 
gather  here  from  all  parts  of  Hobohemia  to  read  the 
papers,  to  talk,  and  to  kill  time.  For  men  who  have 
not  had  a  bed  it  is  a  good  place  to  sleep  when  the 
sun  is  kind  and  the  grass  is  warm.  In  the  long 


SUMMER  RESORTING 


BEHIND  FIELD  MUSEUM,  CHICAGO 


HOBOHEMIA 


11 


summer  evenings  Grant  Park  is  a  favorite  gathering 
place  for  men  who  like  to  get  together  to  tell  yarns 
and  to  frolic.  It  is  a  favorite  rendezvous  for  the 
boy  tramps. 

The  section  of  Grant  Park  facing  the  lake  shore 
is  no  less  popular.  Along  the  shore  from  the  Field 
Museum  northward  to  Randolph  Street  the  home¬ 
less  men  have  access  to  the  lake.  They  take  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  unimproved  condition  of  the  park  and 
make  of  the  place,  between  the  railroad  tracks  and 
the  lake,  a  retreat,  a  resort,  a  social  center.  Here 
they  wash  their  clothes,  bathe,  sew,  mend  shoes. 

Behind  the  Field  Museum,  on  the  section  of  the 
park  that  is  still  being  used  as  a  dump  for  rubbish, 
the  hobos  have  established  a  series  of  camps  or 
“jungles.”  Here,  not  more  than  five  minutes  from 
the  Loop,  are  numerous  improvised  shacks  in  which 
men  live.  Many  men  visit  these  sections  only  for 
the  day.  To  them  it  is  a  good  place  to  come  to 
fish  and  they  spend  hours  gazing  at  the  water  and 
trying  to  keep  the  little  fish  from  biting. 

WHY  MEN  COME  TO  CHICAGO 

The  hobo  has  no  social  centers  other  than  the 
“stem,”  and  the  “jungle.”  He  either  spends  his 
leisure  in  the  “jungles”  or  in  town.  The  “jungle” 
ordinarily  is  a  station  on  his  way  to  town.  Life 
revolves  for  him  around  his  contacts  on  the  “stem,” 
and  it  is  to  town  he  hies  himself  whenever  free  to 
do  so. 

Few  casuals  can  give  any  reason  for  the  attrac¬ 
tion  that  the  city  has  for  them.  Few  have  ever 
considered  it.  The  explanations  they  give,  when 
pressed  for  reasons,  are  more  or  less  matter  of  fact 


12 


THE  HOBO 


and  center  in  their  material  interests.  Other  mo¬ 
tives,  motives  of  which  they  are  only  half  conscious, 
undoubtedly  influence  them. 

The  city  is  the  labor  exchange  for  the  migratory 
worker  and  even  for  the  migratory  non-worker  who 
is  often  just  as  ambitious  to  travel.  When  he  is 
tired  of  a  job,  or  when  the  old  job  is  finished,  he 
goes  to  town  to  get  another  in  some  other  part  of 
the  country.  The  labor  exchanges  facilitate  this 
turnover  of  seasonal  labor.  They  enable  a  man  to 
leave  the  city  “on  the  cushins.”  This  is  the  lure 
that  draws  him  to  the  city.  Hobohemia  brings  the 
job-seeking  man  and  the  man-seeking  job  together. 
Migrants  have  always  known  that  a  larger  variety  of 
jobs  and  a  better  assortment  of  good  “ shipments” 
were  to  be  had  in  Chicago  than  elsewhere. 

Chicago  is  the  greatest  railway  center  in  the  United  States. 
No  one  knows  these  facts  better  than  the  hobo.  It  is  a  fact  that 
trains  from  all  points  of  the  compass  are  constantly  entering 
and  leaving  the  city  over  its  39  different  railways.  According 
to  the  Chicago  City  Manual ,  there  are  2,840  miles  of  steam 
railways  within  the  city  limits.  The  mileage  of  steam  railroad 
track  in  Chicago  is  equal  to  the  entire  railroad  mileage  in  Switzer¬ 
land  and  Belgium,  and  is  greater  than  the  steam  railroad  mileage 
found  in  each  of  the  kingdoms  of  Denmark,  Holland,  Norway, 
and  Portugal.  Twenty-five  through  package  cars  leave  Chicago 
every  day  for  18,000  shipping  points  in  44  states. 

The  termination  of  the  seasonal  occupations 
brings  men  cityward.  They  come  here  for  shelter 
during  the  winter,  and  not  only  for  shelter  but  for 
inside  winter  work.  This  is  the  hobo’s  only  alterna¬ 
tive,  provided  he  cannot  go  to  California  or  to  one 
of  the  southern  states.  The  dull  routine  of  the  in¬ 
side  job,  which  seemed  so  unattractive  in  the  spring¬ 
time,  looks  better  with  the  falling  of  the  temperature. 


HOBOHEMIA 


13 


We  may  add,  also,  that  many  of  the  men  who  are 
attracted  to  the  city  in  winter  are  not  particularly 
interested  in  work.  There  are,  however,  among  the 
improvident  tramp  class,  “wise  virgins”  who  save 
in  the  summer  in  order  to  enjoy  the  life  of  a  board¬ 
ing-house  during  the  winter. 

The  hobo  often  goes  to  town  for  medical  attention. 
For  the  sick  and  injured  of  the  floating  fraternity 
Chicago  is  a  haven  of  refuge  because  of  the  large 
number  of  opportunities  found  here  for  free  treat¬ 
ment.  The  county  hospital,  the  dispensaries,  and 
the  medical  colleges  are  well  known  to  these  men. 
Many  get  well  and  go  their  way,  others  get  no 
farther  than  the  hospital — and  then  the  morgue. 

A  man  whose  income  is  limited  to  a  few  hundred 
dollars  a  year  can  do  more  with  it  in  the  large  city 
than  in  a  small  town.  In  no  other  American  city 
will  a  dollar  go  farther  than  in  Chicago.  It  is  not 
uncommon  to  find  men  living  in  Hobohemia  on  less 
than  a  dollar  a  day.  Large  numbers  make  possible 
cheap  service,  and  cheap  service  brings  the  men. 

THE  PROBLEM  DEFINED  IN  TERMS  OF  NUMBERS 

Not  only  the  extent,  but  the  nature  of  the 
problem  of  the  homeless  man  is  revealed  by  a  study 
of  his  numbers.  In  Chicago  all  estimates  are  in 
substantial  agreement  that  the  population  of  Hobo¬ 
hemia  never  falls  below  30,000  in  summer,  doubles 
this  figure  in  winter,  and  has  reached  75,000  and 
over  in  periods  of  unemployment.1 

1  Mrs.  Solenberger’s  figures  of  more  than  a  decade  ago  put  the  number  of 
the  various  types  of  homeless  men  in  this  city  at  40,000-60,000: 

“No  exact  census  of  the  total  number  of  homeless  men  of  various  types  in 
the  lodging-house  districts  of  Chicago  has  been  taken,  but  40,000  is  considered 
a  conservative  estimate  by  several  careful  students  of  the  question  who  are 


14 


THE  HOBO 


These  numbers,  while  large,  are  only  between  i 
and  per  cent  of  Chicago's  population  of  nearly 
3,000,000.  Homeless  men,  however,  are  not  dis¬ 
tributed  evenly  throughout  the  city;  they  are  con¬ 
centrated,  segregated,  as  we  have  seen,  in  three 
contiguous  narrow  areas  close  to  the  center  of 
transportation  and  trade. 

This  segregation  of  tens  of  thousands  of  foot¬ 
loose,  homeless,  and  not  to  say  hopeless  men  is  the 
fact  fundamental  to  an  understanding  of  the  prob¬ 
lem.  Their  concentration  has  created  an  isolated 
cultural  area — Hobohemia.  Here  characteristic 
institutions  have  arisen — cheap  hotels,  lodging- 
houses,  flops,  eating  joints,  outfitting  shops,  employ- 

closely  in  touch  with  local  conditions.  This  number  is  somewhat  increased  at 
election  times  and  very  greatly  increased  when  word  goes  out,  as  it  did  during 
the  winter  of  1907-8,  that  relief  funds  were  being  collected  and  free  lodgings 
and  food  would  be  furnished  to  the  unemployed.  In  December,  January, 
February,  and  March  of  that  winter  all  private  lodging-houses  were  filled  to 
overflowing,  and  the  Municipal  Lodging  House,  its  annex,  and  two  other  houses 
which  it  operated  gave  a  total  of  79,411  lodgings  to  homeless  men  as  compared 
with  6,930  for  the  same  months  of  the  winter  before,  an  increase  of  72,481. 
The  Health  Department,  which  took  charge  of  the  municipal  lodging-houses 
and  made  a  careful  study  of  local  conditions  during  the  winter  of  1907-8,  esti¬ 
mated  the  number  of  homeless  men  then  in  Chicago  to  be  probably  not  less 
than  60,000.” — One  Thousand  Homeless  Men ,  p.  9,  n. 

Nearly  if  not  quite  one-fifth  of  the  700  hotels  in  Chicago  cater  to  the 
migratory  and  casual  worker.  The  63  hotels  visited  by  investigators  in  this 
study  had  a  total  capacity  for  the  accommodation  of  15,000  men.  On  the  basis 
of  these  figures,  it  seems  safe  to  put  the  total  capacity  of  the  hotels  in  Hobohemian 
areas  at  25,000-30,000.  A  like  number  of  men  are  probably  provided  for  in 
nearby  boarding-  and  lodging-houses.  Thousands  of  other  men  sleep  at  the 
docks,  in  engine  rooms,  in  vacant  houses,  in  flophouses,  or  in  summer  in  the 
parks. 

The  returns  of  the  1920  United  States  census  show  that  in  the  three  wards 
of  the  city  in  which  Hobohemian  areas  are  located  there  are  28,105  more  male 
than  female  residents.  This  figure  indicates  that  the  so-called  “home  guard” 
numbers  about  30,000,  the  summer  population  of  Hobohemia. 

The  Jewish  Bureau  of  Social  Service  estimates  that  the  number  of  home¬ 
less  men  in  Chicago  at  any  one  time  in  the  winter  of  1921-22  was  120,000. 
This  figure,  which  seems  high  when  compared  with  estimates  arrived  at  by  other 
methods  of  calculation,  assumes  that  the  proportion  of  homeless  men  for  the 
city  is  the  same  as  that  for  the  Jewish  community. 


HOBOHEMIA 


15 


ment  agencies,  missions,  radical  bookstores,  welfare 
agencies,  economic  and  political  institutions — to 
minister  to  the  needs,  physical  and  spiritual,  of  the 
homeless  man.  This  massing  of  detached  and 
migratory  men  upon  a  small  area  has  created  an 
environment  in  which  gamblers,  dope  venders,  boot¬ 
leggers,  and  pickpockets  can  live  and  thrive. 

The  mobility  of  the  migratory  worker  com¬ 
plicates  the  problem  of  the  missions,  police,  and 
welfare  agencies.  The  mission  measures  its  success 
not  only  in  numbers  of  converts  but  in  the  numbers 
of  men  fed  and  lodged.  The  police  department, 
on  the  contrary,  alarmed  by  the  influx  of  hobos  and 
tramps  in  response  to  free  meals  and  free  flops,  has 
adopted  a  policy  of  severity  and  repression  for  the 
protection  of  the  community.  Welfare  agencies, 
opposing  alike  the  demoralizing  results  of  indis¬ 
criminate  feeding  and  lodging,  and  the  negative 
policy  of  the  police,  favor  a  program  of  organized 
effort  based  upon  an  investigation  of  the  needs  of 
each  individual  case. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  JUNGLES:  THE  HOMELESS  MAN  ABROAD 


IN  THE  city,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  the 
homeless  man  gathers  with  his  kind.  Even  so 
he  is  very  much  alone  and  his  contacts  with  his 
fellows  are  relatively  formal  and  distant. 

City  life  is  interesting  but  full  of  danger.  Even 
in  a  world  where  the  conditions  of  life  are  so  elemen¬ 
tary,  prudence  dictates  a  certain  amount  of  reserve 
and  hence  formality  and  convention  in  the  relations  of 
men.  The  flophouse  and  the  cheap  hotel  compel 
promiscuity,  but  do  not  encourage  intimacy  or  neigh¬ 
borliness.  On  the  outskirts  of  cities,  however,  the 
homeless  men  have  established  social  centers  that 
they  call  ‘‘jungles,”  places  where  the  hobos  congre¬ 
gate  to  pass  their  leisure  time  outside  the  urban 
centers.  The  jungle  is  to  the  tramp  what  the  camp 
ground  is  to  the  vagabond  who  travels  by  auto.  It 
has  for  the  hobo,  perhaps,  greater  significance,  since 
it  becomes  a  necessary  part  of  his  daily  life.  The 
evening  camp  fire  for  the  tourist,  on  the  contrary,  is  a 
novelty  merely,  an  experience  but  not  a  necessity. 

LOCATION  AND  TYPES  OF  JUNGLES 

Jungles  are  usually  located  in  close  proximity  to  a 
railroad  division  point,  where  the  trains  are  made  up 
or  where  trains  stop  to  change  crews  and  engines. 
Sometimes  they  are  located  near  a  “tank  town,” 
where  occasional  stops  are  made  for  water  or  fuel. 
Not  infrequently  they  are  near  the  intersection  of 
railroad  lines.  In  the  South,  and  on  the  West  Coast, 
jungles  are  often  located  along  the  highways.  This 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  many  men  go  South  in  winter 

16] 


HOBOHEMIA 


17 


not  to  work  but  to  escape  the  rigors  of  the  northern 
climate.  The  railroad  for  the  time  being  has  no 
attraction  for  them  and  they  are  content  to  stroll 
abroad,  seeing  the  country.  In  the  West,  where 
men  frequently  carry  bedding  and  cooking  equip¬ 
ment,  they  can  camp  anywhere.  It  is  easier  for 
them,  therefore,  to  leave  the  railroad  and  venture 
along  the  highways. 

Accessibility  to  a  railroad  is  only  one  of  the 
requirements  of  a  good  jungle.  It  should  be  located 
in  a  dry  and  shady  place  that  permits  sleeping  on  the 
ground.  There  should  be  plenty  of  water  for  cooking 
and  bathing  and  wood  enough  to  keep  the  pot  boil¬ 
ing.  If  there  is  a  general  store  near  by  where  bread, 
meat,  and  vegetables  may  be  had,  so  much  the  better. 
For  those  who  have  no  money,  but  enough  courage  to 
“bum  lumps,”  it  is  well  that  the  jungles  be  not  too  far 
from  a  town,  though  far  enough  to  escape  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  the  natives  and  officials,  the  town  “clowns.” 

Jungle  camps  may  be  divided  into  two  classes — 
the  temporary  and  the  permanent,  or  continuous. 
Temporary  jungles  are  merely  stop-over  or  relay  sta¬ 
tions  inhabited  intermittently  by  the  men  of  the  road. 
Men  temporarily  stranded  in  a  town  usually  seek  a 
secluded  spot  at  the  edge  of  a  village,  not  too  far 
from  the  railroad,  where  they  may  while  away  the 
time  without  being  molested.  Men  on  the  road  look 
for  places  where  other  men  preceding  them  have 
camped.  There  they  are  likely  to  find  pots  and 
kettles  in  which  to  cook  food  or  wash  clothes.  At 
points  where  trains  stop  frequently,  making  it  pos¬ 
sible  for  men  to  get  away  at  any  time,  the  population 
of  a  temporary  jungle  is  likely  to  be  larger  and  more 
permanent. 


18 


THE  HOBO 


The  continuous  or  permanent  jungles  are  seldom 
deserted,  at  least  in  summer.  There  is  usually  some¬ 
one  there  to  keep  the  fire  burning  and  usually  there 
are  men  or  boys  occupied  at  various  tasks — cooking, 
washing  or  boiling  clothes,  shaving,  sewing,  bathing, 
and  reading. 

Women  are  often  found  in  the  areas  of  the  cities 
where  the  homeless  men  congregate  but  not  in  the 
jungles.  Here  is  an  institution  where  the  hobo  is 
his  own  housewife.  He  not  only  cooks  his  own 
food,  but  has  even  invented  dishes  that  are  peculiar 
to  jungle  life.  Chief  among  these  is  “mulligan” 
stew.  “Mulligan,”  or  “combination,”  is  a  “throw 
together”  of  vegetables  and  meat.  There  are  certain 
ideal  mixtures  of  vegetables  and  meat,  but  the  tramp 
makes  “mulligan”  from  anything  that  is  at  hand. 
Onions,  potatoes,  and  beef  are  the  prime  essentials. 
Some  men  become  adept  at  frying  and  roasting  over 
camp  fires. 

The  hobo  who  lives  in  the  jungles  has  proved  that 
he  can  become  domesticated  without  the  aid  of 
women.  He  has  established  the  habit  of  keeping  his 
clothes  and  person  clean.  It  is  not  difficult  to  select 
from  a  group  of  transients  the  men  who  have  just 
come  from  the  jungles.  Their  clothes  will  be  clean 
and  even  bear  evidence  of  jungle  sewing.  Overalls 
that  have  seen  service  will  be  bleached  almost  white 
from  numerous  washings.  The  hobo  learns  here  the 
housewife’s  art  of  keeping  pots  clean  and  the  camp 
in  order.  The  man  who  cannot,  or  will  not,  learn 
these  few  elementary  principles  of  housekeeping  is 
likely  to  fare  ill  in  the  jungle. 

If  it  is  a  warm  day  some  men  will  be  sleeping. 
They  may  have  been  riding  trains  all  night  or  have 


HOBOHEMIA 


19 


found  the  night  too  cold  for  sleep.  A  daily  paper 
from  an  adjoining  town  may  be  going  the  rounds. 
There  may  be  newspapers  from  different  cities 
brought  in  by  men  traveling  different  directions. 
Travelers  meeting  this  way  have  much  of  common 
interest  to  talk  about  and  conversation  is  enlivened 
with  discussions  of  questions  of  concern  to  “bos.” 
The  jungle  is  always  astir  with  life  and  movement, 
and  the  hobo  enters  into  this  life  as  he  does  no  other. 
Here  he  turns  his  back  on  the  world  and  faces  his 
fellows,  and  is  at  ease. 

Absolute  democracy  reigns  in  the  jungle.  The 
color  line  has  been  drawn  in  some  camps,  but  it  is  the 
general  custom,  and  especially  in  the  North,  for 
Negroes,  Mexicans,  and  whites  to  share  the  same 
jungle.  The  jungle  is  the  melting  pot  of  trampdom. 

The  average  man  of  the  road  has  had  a  variety  of 
experience  and  not  a  little  adventure.  In  the  jungles 
there  is  always  an  audience  for  anyone  who  wants  to 
talk,  whether  of  his  thoughts,  his  experiences,  or  his 
observations.  There  is  plenty  of  opportunity  to  tell 
stories.  The  art  of  telling  a  story  is  diligently  culti¬ 
vated  by  the  “bos”  in  the  assemblies  about  the  fire. 
This  vagabond  existence  tends  to  enrich  the  person¬ 
ality  and  long  practice  has  developed  in  some  of  these 
men  an  art  of  personal  narrative  that  has  greatly 
declined  elsewhere.  Many  of  them  develop  into 
fascinating  raconteurs  in  the  literal  as  well  as  the 
literary  sense  of  the  term.  Talk  in  the  jungle  is  of 
the  open  road  and  the  day  to  come,  and  in  that  there 
is  sufficient  matter  to  occupy  them. 

Jungle  populations  are  ever  changing.  Every 
hour  new  faces  appear  to  take  the  place  of  those  that 
have  passed  on.  They  come  and  go  without  cere- 


20 


THE  HOBO 


mony,  with  scarcely  a  greeting  or  “ fare-you-well.” 
Every  new  member  is  of  interest  for  the  news  he 
brings  or  the  rumors  that  he  spreads.  Each  is 
interested  in  the  other  so  far  as  he  has  something  to 
tell  about  the  road  over  which  he  has  come,  the  work 
conditions,  the  behavior  of  the  police,  or  other  sig¬ 
nificant  details.  But  with  all  the  discussion  there  is 
seldom  any  effort  to  discuss  personal  relations  and 
connections.  Here  is  one  place  where  every  man’s 
past  is  his  own  secret. 

Only  in  the  case  of  very  young  boys  or  sick  men 
and  sometimes  old  men  is  there  any  effort  to  learn 
something  of  the  individual’s  past.  Men  will  brush 
elbows  in  the  jungles  for  days  and  even  weeks  with¬ 
out  ever  learning  one  another’s  names.  They  live 
closed  lives  and  grant  others  the  same  privilege. 

THE  LAWS  OF  THE  JUNGLE 

In  every  permanent  camp  there  is  likely  to  be  a 
permanent  group  that  makes  the  camp  its  head¬ 
quarters.  Sometimes  these  groups  are  able  to  take 
possession  and  exploit  the  transient  guests.  The 
I.W.W.  has  at  times  been  able  to  exclude  everyone 
who  did  not  carry  the  red  card  of  that  organization. 
As  a  rule,  however,  the  jungle  is  extremely  hospitable 
and  democratic. 

The  freedom  of  the  jungles  is,  however,  limited  by 
a  code  of  etiquette.  Jungle  laws  are  unwritten,  but 
strictly  adhered  to.  The  breaking  of  these  rules,  if 
intentional,  leads  to  expulsion,  forced  labor,  or  phys¬ 
ical  punishment. 

Jungle  crimes  include  (i)  making  fire  by  night  in  jungles 
subject  to  raids;  (2)  “hi-jacking,”  or  robbing  men  at  night 
when  sleeping  in  the  jungles;  “buzzing,”  or  making  the  jungle 


HOBOHEMIA 


21 


a  permanent  hangout  for  jungle  “buzzards”  who  subsist  on 
the  leavings  of  meals;  (4)  wasting  food  or  destroying  it  after 
eating  is  a  serious  crime;  (5)  leaving  pots  and  other  utensils 
dirty  after  using;  (6)  cooking  without  first  hustling  fuel;  (7) 
destroying  jungle  equipment.  In  addition  to  these  fixed  offenses 
are  other  crimes  which  are  dealt  with  as  they  arise.  Men  are 
supposed  to  use  cooking  cans  for  cooking  only,  “boiling  up” 
cans  for  washing  clothing,  coffee  cans  to  cook  coffee,  etc.  After 
using,  guests  are  expected  to  clean  utensils,  dry  them,  and 
leave  them  turned  bottom  side  up  so  that  they  will  not  fill  with 
rainwater  and  rust.  They  are  expected  to  keep  the  camp  clean. 
To  enforce  such  common-sense  rules,  self-appointed  committees 
come  into  existence.1 

Exclusive  camps  are  usually  the  result  of  the 
efforts  of  the  older  residents  to  enforce  discipline. 
Most  “jungle  buzzards,”  men  who  linger  in  the 
jungles  from  season  to  season,  take  an  interest  in 
the  running  of  things.  For  the  most  part  they  are 
parasitic,  begging  food  from  others,  but  they  are 
generally  on  the  alert  to  keep  the  place  clean  and 
orderly. 

The  following  description  of  a  day  in  the  jungles 
was  written  by  a  migratory  worker,  a  man  who  knows 
the  life  from  years  of  experience.  His  narrative  pre¬ 
sents  a  faithful  picture  of  an  average  day  in  an 
average  jungle. 

A  Day  in  the  Jungles 

i.2  This  jungle  is  on  the  edge  of  a  strip  of  timber.  A  stream 
fed  from  a  spring  runs  into  the  lake  near  by.  The  empty  box 

1  It  is  interesting  here  to  note  that  there  is  a  striking  parallel  between  the 
rules  of  the  jungles  and  the  rules  of  cow  camps  and  other  camps  of  the  hills.  It 
is  the  custom  of  the  cow  men  of  the  west  to  maintain  camps  in  the  hills  which 
are  stocked  with  provisions  and  equipped  with  utensils  and  furnishings.  These 
camps  are  usually  left  open  and  anyone  who  passes  is  welcome  to  spend  the 
night,  provided  he  puts  the  place  in  order  when  he  leaves. 

2  The  documents  from  which  extracts  have  been  taken  are  numbered 
consecutively  in  the  text.  For  complete  list  of  documents  used  in  each  chapter 
see  pp.  281-88. 


22 


THE  HOBO 


cars  on  the  railroad  siding  close  by  offer  protection  against  rain 
and  a  place  to  sleep.  Half  a  mile  away  is  the  junction  of  two 
railroads  where  all  trains  stop,  and  a  mile  and  a  half  further  on 
is  a  small  town. 

At  one  o’clock  in  the  morning  a  few  men  step  off  a  freight 
train.  One  speaks  up:  “Does  anyone  know  if  there  is  a  jungle 
in  this  place  ?”  “Yes,”  someone  answers,  “The  jungle  is  up 
in  that  direction,”  pointing  towards  a  woods,  “but  what’s  the 
use  in  going  over  there  now  ?  You  can’t  build  a  fire  at  this  time 
of  night.  I  am  going  to  hunt  up  a  box  car  for  a  flop.” 

After  a  moment  of  silence  someone  else  asks,  “Any  town 
close  by  ?”  “Yes,  there  it  is,”  replies  another,  pointing  to 
some  lights  showing  in  the  distance.  The  men  form  groups 
according  to  acquaintance  and  talk  in  a  low  tone.  “Come  on, 
let  us  hunt  up  a  place  to  flop  till  daylight.”  The  different 
groups  start  off.  One  starts  out  for  the  town,  one  goes  towards 
the  box  cars,  and  one  makes  for  the  jungles.  I  was  with  the 
group  bound  for  the  jungles. 

A  hundred  feet  from  the  railroad  right-of-way  under  the 
darkness  of  big  trees  we  see  three  or  four  dying  camp  fires. 
Around  one  fire  we  can  see  the  shadows  of  men.  Some  are 
sitting  on  the  butts  of  logs,  smoking  or  dozing;  others  are 
stretched  out  on  the  ground  sound  asleep. 

The  new  arrivals  walk  up  to  the  fire,  look  over  the  bunch  to 
find,  perhaps,  some  old  acquaintances.  Then  some  of  us  find 
seats  or  lie  down;  others,  with  as  little  noise  as  possible,  hunt 
up  cans  which  they  fill  with  water  and  place  over  the  glowing 
coals.  The  men  take  ground  coffee  from  packages  in  their 
pockets  and  pour  it  into  boiling  water.  The  feed  is  open  to 
everybody.  Bread  and  sausage  are  brought  out;  even  sugar 
is  passed  around  as  long  as  it  lasts.  The  men  eat  in  silence. 
Each  one  takes  the  utensils  he  used  and  walks  to  the  creek  to 
wash  them.  Nearly  all  of  the  men  then  lie  down,  but  some 
leave.  Nobody  asks  anyone  about  himself  and  nobody  says 
“hello”  or  “goodbye.” 

Daylight  comes.  The  breaking  of  sticks  for  firewood  is 
heard.  Fires  are  started,  cooking  utensils  are  chosen.  The  law 
of  the  jungle  is  that  no  one  can  call  a  vessel  his  except  at  the 
time  he  uses  it.  Packages  and  receptacles  are  opened  revealing 
food  of  all  kinds.  Eating  commences.  If  any  man  with  more 
than  enough  for  himself  sees  someone  else  not  eating,  it  is 


HOBOHEMIA 


23 


etiquette  to  offer  to  share  with  his  neighbor.  If  the  other  man 
accepts  the  offer,  he  thereby  takes  upon  himself  the  responsibility 
of  cleaning  the  dishes. 

At  any  time  men  will  be  seen  leaving  the  jungles  to  hustle 
food,  or  to  get  wood,  or  to  catch  trains.  Anytime  is  eating  time 
in  the  jungles  and  someone  is  always  bringing  in  “chuck”  that 
he  has  bought  or  “bummed.”  Talking  goes  on  as  long  as  the 
daylight  lasts.  Heated  arguments  often  develop.  Papers  and 
pamphlets  are  distributed,  union  cards  are  taken  out;  business 
meetings  are  held  to  decide  policies  and  actions,  how  to  get  the 
next  meal  or  how  to  win  the  battle  between  labor  and  capital. 

About  ten  o’clock  in  the  morning  two  townsmen  displaying 
stars  come  into  the  jungle.  One  of  them  tells  the  men  that  they 
will  have  to  clean  out  because  people  are  kicking.  A  holdup 
has  been  committed  in  town  the  night  before  and  they  intend 
to  prevent  any  more  from  being  committed,  “So  you  fellers 
have  to  leave.” 

One  man  in  the  jungles  speaks  up  and  tells  the  officers  that 
we  are  not  holdup  men,  that  we  are  getting  ourselves  something 
to  eat,  and  that  we  have  got  to  have  some  place  to  do  that. 
“We  have  paid  for  everything.  What  would  you  do  if  you  was 
in  our  place;  go  into  town  and  get  pulled  and  let  the  town 
feed  us  ?” 

The  officer  looks  nonplussed,  but  curtly  replies,  “Well,  I 
am  going  by  orders.”  After  that  he  walks  away.  The  timid 
men  leave  the  jungle.  The  others  reply  by  roundly  cursing 
indiscriminately  all  their  enemies.  They  are  town  clowns, 
sky  pilots,  Bible  ranters,  bulls,  politicians,  home  guards,  hicks, 
stool  pigeons,  systems,  scissor  bills,  and  capitalists.  Incidentally 
they  advocate  strikes,  rebellion,  mass  action,  complete  revolu¬ 
tion  of  the  political  system,  abolishment  of  the  wage  system. 

It  is  close  to  twelve  o’clock.  Fires  are  replenished,  cans, 
pots  and  pans  are  put  into  service.  Plans  are  being  made  in 
anticipation  of  a  coming  raid  by  the  police.  At  two  o’clock, 
someone  suggests  a  song.  After  a  fiery  song  of  the  class  struggle, 
a  speech  follows  advising  the  men  to  organize. 

By  three  o’clock  only  about  fifteen  or  twenty  are  left  in  the 
jungle.  The  officer  followed  by  townsmen  armed  with  guns 
return.  Some  of  the  hobos  retreat  into  the  woods.  Those 
remaining  are  ordered  to  hold  up  their  hands  with  “You  damn 
bums”  added  to  the  command.  Some  comply,  others  refuse. 


24 


THE  HOBO 


One  even  has  the  courage  to  shout,  “Go  ahead  and  shoot,  you 
damn  cowards.”  This  starts  a  general  shooting  into  every  pot, 
pan  and  can  in  sight.  The  men  scatter. 

After  the  invaders  leave,  an  inventory  is  immediately  made 
to  assess  the  damage.  Since  the  utensils  in  best  condition  had 
been  hidden  in  the  brush,  no  serious  loss  to  the  jungle  has 
resulted. 

By  four  o’clock  the  story  of  the  raid  has  traveled  and  men 
come  in  from  all  directions.  The  decision  of  the  majority  is  to 
remain  in  the  jungle  over  night.  Food  is  brought  in  and  prepara¬ 
tions  for  supper  begin.  The  men  are  doubling  up  to  cook 
together.  Those  belonging  to  certain  unions  have  as  many  as 
eight  or  ten  in  a  bunch.  There  are  from  thirty  to  forty  angry 
men  in  camp  by  now  and  more  are  coming  in.  There  is  some 
talk  of  revenge. 

By  six  o’clock  supper  is  well  under  way.  Several  fires  are 
burning.  Containers  of  every  description  are  used  to  cook  in; 
broken  shovels  and  tie  plates  are  used  to  fry  on,  empty  tobacco 
tins  are  used  as  cups,  and  tomato  cans  serve  as  fry  pans,  soup 
kettles  and  soap  dishes.  Potatoes  are  roasted  on  the  coals, 
wires  are  bent  upon  which  to  broil  meat.  All  are  still  talking 
excitedly  of  the  clash  with  the  police. 

While  some  of  the  men  are  busily  engaged  in  cooking,  others 
are  sewing  and  mending  their  clothes  or  shoes,  and  still  others  are 
shaving.  Now  and  then  as  at  breakfast  someone  will  shout, 
asking  if  anybody  wants  some  spuds  or  a  piece  of  punk  or  a 
piece  of  “gut”  (sausage);  and  usually  there  is  an  affirmative 
answer.  After  supper,  pans  and  cans  are  cleaned  out,  the  paper 
is  read  and  passes  the  rounds.  Already  it  is  growing  dark,  and 
the  hunt  begins  for  dry  sleeping  places. 

Suddenly  a  commotion  is  started;  a  man  is  roughly  rushed 
into  the  open.  He  is  a  hi-jack  caught  in  the  act  of  robbing  a 
fellow  who  was  sleeping,  a  greater  crime  in  the  jungle  than  an 

open  hold  up.  Cries  of  “Burn  the  - ”  and  “Let  us  hang 

him!”  are  heard  from  all  sides.  A  council  is  hurriedly  called,  a 
chairman  is  selected,  motions  are  made  with  amendments  and 
substitutes.  After  a  short  discussion  a  vote  is  taken  to  give 
him  a  whipping.  The  man  is  tied  to  a  tree  facing  toward  it. 
His  back  is  bared,  and  men  are  called  for  to  apply  punishment. 
No  one  steps  forward;  everybody  declines  to  apply  the  strap 
or  stick. 


HOBOHEMIA 


25 


Another  council  is  called  but  before  they  get  started  a  young 
fellow  has  declared  his  willingness  to  fight  the  hi-jack  to  a 
finish  because  he  knew  him  and  didn’t  like  him  anyway.  The 
proposition  is  accepted.  The  hi-jack  is  more  than  ten  pounds 
heavier  than  the  challenger;  but  whether  from  fear  or  not,  for 
he  knows  that  the  challenger  has  the  crowd  back  of  him  to  a 
man,  the  hi-jack  is  slow  to  start.  Perhaps  he  feels  that  the 
crowd  will  give  him  a  beating  whether  he  wins  or  not.  He  soon 
loosens  up  but  he  does  not  show  the  goods.  The  “bo”  is  more 
than  a  match  for  him  but  the  hi-jack  does  not  give  up  easily. 
He  displays  some  courage  but  the  “bo”  fights  like  a  madman 
and  strikes  the  hi-jack  blow  after  blow.  The  fight  lasts  more 
than  ten  minutes  before  the  hi-jack  is  completely  knocked  out. 

After  he  gets  to  his  feet  he  is  given  a  chance  to  wash  his  face 
and  stick  paper  on  the  cuts;  then  he  is  “  frisked,”  that  is,  ordered 
to  donate  all  but  one  dollar  to  the  jungle.  Then  he  is  sent  out 
of  camp  with  orders  not  to  show  up  in  any  of  the  diggings  along 
the  line  for  it  would  be  murder  if  anyone  should  spot  him. 

By  eleven  o’clock  the  excitement  is  over.  Different  men 
announce  that  they  were  headed  for  so  and  so  and  that  the 
freight  starts  at  such  a  time.  To  this  someone  replies  that  he 
is  going  that  way  too  so  they  start  off  together.  Others  walk 
back  among  the  trees  to  the  places  where  they  have  prepared 
to  sleep.  Others  who  have  insufficient  clothes  to  stand  the 
night  chill  bunch  up  around  the  glowing  camp  fires.  Soon 
everything  is  quiet  except  for  an  occasional  sound  out  of  the 
darkness  of  men  mumbling  in  conversation.  Occasionally  the 
sound  of  groans  and  snores  or  sighs,  or  curses  are  heard.  These 
betray  the  dreams  of  men  living  like  hunted  animals. 

I  look  at  my  watch  and  note  that  it  is  near  midnight  and 
that  all  is  over  for  the  night,  so  I  curl  up  on  some  papers  beside 
a  bed  of  coals.1 

THE  MELTING  POT  OF  TRAMPDOM 

The  part  played  by  the  jungles  as  an  agency  of 
discipline  for  the  men  of  the  road  cannot  be  over¬ 
estimated.  Here  hobo  tradition  and  law  are  formu¬ 
lated  and  transmitted.  It  is  the  nursery  of  tramp 

1  Written  by  A.  W.  Dragstedt,  secretary  in  192a  of  the  “Hobo  College”  of 
Chicago. 


26 


THE  HOBO 


lore.  Here  the  fledgling  learns  to  behave  like  an 
old-timer.  In  the  jungles  the  slang  of  the  road  and 
the  cant  of  the  tramp  class  is  coined  and  circulated. 
It  may  originate  elsewhere  but  here  it  gets  recogni¬ 
tion.  The  stories  and  songs  current  among  the  men 
of  the  road,  the  sentiments,  the  attitudes,  and  the 
philosophy  of  the  migratory  laborer  are  all  given  due 
airing.  In  short,  every  idea  and  ideal  that  finds 
lodgment  in  the  tramp's  fancy  may  be  expressed  here 
in  the  wayside  forum  where  anyone  who  thinks  may 
speak,  whether  he  be  a  jester  or  a  sage. 

Suspicion  and  hostility  are  the  universal  attitudes 
of  the  town  or  small  city  to  the  hobo  and  the  tramp. 
Accordingly,  the  so-called  “floater”  custom  of  pass¬ 
ing  vagrants  on  to  other  communities  is  widespread.1 
The  net  effect  of  this  policy  is  to  intensify  the  anti¬ 
social  attitude  of  the  homeless  man  and  to  release 
and  accentuate  criminal  tendencies.  The  small  town 
is  helpless  to  cope  with  the  situation.  As  things 
are,  its  action  perhaps  cannot  be  different.  Agri¬ 
culture,  as  it  becomes  organized  upon  a  capitalistic 
basis,  is  increasingly  dependent  upon  seasonal  labor, 
in  harvesting  crops  for  example.  The  report  of  the 
Commission  on  Industrial  Relations  states: 

The  attempts  to  regulate  movements  of  migratory  workers 
by  local  organizations  have,  without  exception,  proved  failures. 
This  must  necessarily  be  true  no  matter  how  well  planned  or 
well  managed  such  local  organizations  may  be.  The  problem 
cannot  be  handled  except  on  a  national  scale  and  by  methods 
and  machinery  which  are  proportioned  to  the  enormous  size 
and  complexity  of  the  problem.2 

1  For  a  discussion  of  the  practice  of  “floating”  with  reference  to  the  treat¬ 
ment  of  misdemeanants,  see  Stuart  A.  Queen,  The  Passing  of  the  County  Jail. 

2  Final  Report ,  p.  158. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  LODGING-HOUSE: 

THE  HOMELESS  MAN  AT  HOME 


HOBOHEMIA  is  a  lodging-house  area.  The 
accommodations  it  offers  the  homeless  man 
range  from  a  bed  in  a  single  room  for  fifty  cents  to 
location  on  the  floor  of  an  empty  loft  for  a  dime. 
Lodging-house  keepers  take  thin  profits  but  they 
serve  large  numbers.  There  are  usually  more  men 
than  there  are  beds,  particularly  in  winter.  An 
estimate  indicates  that  all  hotels  are  full  from 
December  to  May.  During  the  rest  of  the  year 
they  are  likely  to  be  filled  to  two-thirds  of  their 
capacity. 

Chicago  has  known  three  types  of  cheap  hotels: 
the  so-called  “barrel-house,”  the  welfare  institution, 
and  the  business  enterprise.  The  first,  the  barrel- 
house,  was  a  rooming-house,  saloon,  and  house 
of  prostitution,  all  in  one.  Men  with  money  usu¬ 
ally  spent  it  in  the  barrel-houses.  There  they  found 
warmth  and  companionship.  They  would  join  the 
circle  at  the  bar,  buy  drinks  for  the  crowd,  and 
have  a  good  time.  Men  who  were  afraid  of  being 
robbed  placed  their  money  with  the  bartender  and 
charged  against  it  the  drinks  purchased.  As  soon 
as  they  were  overcome  by  drink  they  would  be 
taken  upstairs  to  bed.  The  following  day  the  pro¬ 
gram  would  be  repeated.  A  three-  or  four-hundred- 
dollar  stake  at  this  rate  usually  lasted  a  week.  Not 
infrequently  the  barrel-house  added  to  its  other 
attractions  the  opportunity  for  gambling. 

The  barrel-house  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  Its  place 
has  been  taken  in  part  by  hotels  like  the  Working- 

127 


28 


THE  HOBO 


men’s  Palace;  the  Reliance;  the  New  Century, owned 
and  operated  by  the  Salvation  Army;  the  Rufus  F. 
Dawes,  owned  and  maintained  by  General  C.  G. 
Dawes;  the  Popular  Hotel,  owned  and  maintained 
by  the  Chicago  Christian  Industrial  League.  In 
places  of  this  sort,  charges  are  small,  usually  not 
enough  to  cover  operating  expenses. 

The  Rufus  F.  Dawes  and  the  Workingmen’s 
Palace  are  both  large,  fire-proof  structures,  clean  and 
modern,  constructed  originally  for  other  purposes. 
Like  all  paternalistic,  quasi-charitable  institutions, 
however,  they  are  not  popular,  although  the  charges 
for  a  room  and  bed  are  hardly  sufficient  to  cover  the 
operating  expenses.  This  is  the  second  type  of 
lodging-house. 

The  pioneers  in  the  cheap  hotel  business  in  Chi¬ 
cago  operated  on  a  commercial  basis  were  Harvey  and 
McGuire,  the  founders  of  the  well-known  Harvey- 
McGuire  hotel  system.  Harvey,  an  evangelist,  in  his 
work  with  the  “down-and-outs”  had  learned  the 
evils  of  barrel-houses.  He  went  into  a  partnership 
with  McGuire,  a  man  acquainted  with  the  rough 
side  of  life.  After  a  number  of  years  the  Harvey- 
McGuire  system  went  out  of  existence.  McGuire 
went  into  the  hotel  business  for  himself  and  now  owns 
a  number  of  cheap  lodging-houses.  Harvey  sold  his 
interests  to  his  nephew  and  went  back  to  evangelistic 
work.  The  nephew  went  into  partnership  with  Mr. 
Dammarell.  There  are  eight  hotels  in  the  present 
Harvey-Dammarell  system  with  a  combined  capacity 
for  lodging  3,000  men.  The  Ideal  opened  in  1884, 
probably  the  oldest  men’s  hotel  in  the  city,  originally 
known  as  the  Collonade,  at  509  West  Madison  Street, 
is  an  example  of  the  type.  The  Mohawk,  the  most 


HOBOHEMIA 


29 


modern  men’s  hotel,  is  also  the  property  of  the 
Harvey-Dammarell  system. 

The  men  who  run  these  hotels  do  not  claim  to  be 
philanthropists.  Mr.  Harvey  has  defined  the  situa¬ 
tion.  He  says: 

We  are  in  the  hotel  business  to  make  a  living.  We  give  the 
men  the  best  service  they  can  pay  for.  We  give  nothing  away 
and  we  ask  nothing.  Consequently,  we  do  not  lay  ourselves 
open  to  criticism.  We  insist  on  order  and  sobriety  and  we  usu¬ 
ally  get  it.  We  hold  that  the  men  have  a  right  to  criticize  us 
and  come  to  us  if  they  are  not  satisfied  with  the  service  we  give. 
That  is  business.  The  man  who  pays  seventy-five  cents  for  a 
bed  has  a  right  to  seventy-five  cents’  worth  of  service.  If  a  man 
can  only  pay  twenty-five  cents  for  a  bed  he  is  entitled  to  all  that 
he  pays  for  and  is  entitled  to  kick  if  he  doesn’t  get  it. 

Different  types  of  hotels  attract  different  types  of 
men.  The  better  class  of  workingmen  who  patronize 
the  Mohawk,  where  the  prices  range  from  forty  to 
seventy  cents,  wear  collars  and  creased  trousers. 
The  hotel  provides  stationery  and  desks.  Hotels 
where  the  prices  range  from  twenty-five  cents  to 
forty  cents  are  patronized  by  a  shabbier  group  of 
men.  Few  of  them  are  shaven.  Some  of  them  read, 
but  most  of  them  sit  alone  with  their  thoughts.  In 
some  second-class  places  a  man  is  employed  to  go  the 
rounds  and  arouse  the  sleepers. 

In  the  twenty-five-cent  hotels,  the  patrons  not 
only  are  content  to  sit  unshaven,  but  they  are  often 
dirty.  Many  of  them  have  the  faces  of  beaten  men; 
many  of  them  are  cripples  and  old  men.  The  excep¬ 
tions  are  the  Popular  and  the  Rufus  F.  Dawes,  where 
the  price  is  twenty  cents  or  less  to  be  sure,  but  the 
guests  are  more  select.  Since  these  places  are 
semi-charitable,  they  can  force  certain  requirements 
upon  their  patrons. 


30 


THE  HOBO 


The  term  “room”  is  a  misnomer  when  applied  to 
a  sleeping  apartment  in  a  cheap  hotel.  These  rooms 
have  been  aptly  termed  “cubicles,”  and  among  the 
patrons  they  are  known  as  “cages.”  A  cubicle  is 
usually  from  6  to  8  feet  in  width  and  from  8  to  12 
feet  in  length.  The  thin  walls,  composed  of  steel  or 
matched  lumber,  are  usually  about  8  feet  in  height. 
A  wire  netting  over  the  top  admits  air  and  prevents 
the  guests  climbing  from  one  cubicle  to  another. 
The  furnishings  are  simple;  sometimes  only  a  bed, 
sometimes  a  bed  and  a  chair,  and  in  more  expensive 
places  a  stand.  They  are  not  constructed  either  for 
comfort  or  convenience;  lighting  and  ventilation  are 
usually  bad.  But  they  are  all  they  were  intended  to 
be:  places  for  men  to  sleep  with  a  limited  degree  of 
privacy. 

A  canvass  of  the  Hobohemian  hotels  has  been  made 
with  a  view  to  learning  the  approximate  mobility  of 
the  hotel  population.  Few  of  these  hotels  are  pre¬ 
pared  to  make  any  but  general  statements,  though 
some  of  them  have  made  an  effort  to  get  the  facts. 
The  consensus  of  opinion  of  hotel  clerks  is  that  the 
greatest  turnover  is  in  the  cheapest  hotels.  Better- 
class  places  like  the  Acme,  the  Ironsides,  and  the 
Workingmen’s  Palace  have  a  large  proportion  of 
permanent  guests.  The  permanent  guests,  those 
who  remain  two  or  three  months  or  more,  range  from 
a  third  to  a  half  of  the  total  number  of  roomers. 
Many  of  the  older  hotels  have  permanent  patrons 
who  are  seasonal  but  regular.  Others  never  leave 
the  city. 

THE  “FLOPHOUSE” 

“Flophouses”  are  nearly  all  alike.  Guests  sleep 
on  the  floor  or  in  bare,  wooden  bunks.  The  only 


HOBOHEMIA 


31 


privilege  they  buy  is  the  privilege  to  lie  down  some¬ 
where  in  a  warm  room. 

2.  “Hogan’s  Flop”  is  known  from  coast  to  coast  among 
hobos.  A  tramp  who  has  been  in  Chicago  long  enough  to  learn 
of  Lynch’s  place,  the  Workingmen’s  Palace,  Hinky  Dink’s,  or  to 
eat  doughnuts  in  missions  has  heard  of  Hogan’s. 

The  first  “Hogan’s  Flop”  was  located  on  South  State  Street. 
Later  it  moved  to  the  West  Side  and  for  some  time  was  on  Merid¬ 
ian  Street.  Since  it  left  Meridian  Street  it  has  been  located  in 
several  places.  The  original  Hogan,  who  was  a  Spanish- 
American  War  veteran,  has  passed  to  his  reward.  Only  his  name 
remains.  Every  winter,  however,  someone  starts  a  “flop”  and 
it  invariably  inherits  the  name  and  fame  of  Hogan.  Hogan  is 
now  a  myth,  a  sort  of  eponymous  hero.  A  tramp  discussing  this 
matter  said:  “Hogan  may  be  dead  but  the  bugs  that  were  in 
business  with  him  are  still  on  the  job.  They  follow  this  joint 
wherever  it  goes.  You  know  when  they  moved  from  Meridian 
Street  it  wasn’t  three  days  before  the  bugs  got  the  new  address 
and  followed  us.” 

The  following  account  is  adapted  from  a  descrip¬ 
tion  of  a  night  spent  in  “Hogan’s  Flop”: 

3.  I  spent  the  evening  at  the  Bible  Rescue  Mission  where 
sincere  folks  were  pleading  with  men  of  the  road  to  come  forward 
and  make  things  right  with  the  Master.  Two  came  forward 
and  it  was  a  time  of  rejoicing.  They  prayed  and  sang  and  fed 
us  rolls  and  coffee,  and  to  those  who  had  no  bed  for  the  night  they 
gave  tickets  to  “Hogan’s.”  They  offered  me  a  ticket  but  I 
thanked  them  and  assured  them  that  I  still  had  a  little  money. 

You  have  to  know  where  “Hogan’s”  is  to  find  it.  In  the 
spring  of  1922,  it  occupied  the  second  and  third  floors  of  a  build¬ 
ing  at  16  South  Desplaines  Street.  A  narrow,  shaky  stairs,  a 
squeaky  door,  a  feebly  lighted  entrance,  a  night  clerk  who  de¬ 
mands  a  dime  and  you  are  within.  You  may  take  your  choice  of 
sleeping  on  this  floor  or  go  on  up  to  the  third.  There  is  no  differ¬ 
ence  in  the  price.  I  chose  the  second  floor.  It  was  less  crowded. 
The  fire,  from  a  large  heater  in  the  center  of  the  room,  was 
warmer. 

The  men  around  the  stove  had  evidently  been  exposed  to  the 
elements.  One  was  drying  his  shoes  for  it  had  rained  all  day. 


32 


THE  HOBO 


Another  was  drying  his  shirt.  Two  were  engaged  in  listless  con¬ 
versation.  Others  were  silent.  The  air  was  stuffy,  the  light  dim. 
I  walked  around  the  room  looking  for  a  place  to  lie  down.  Dozens 
of  men  were  sleeping  on  the  floor  with  their  heads  to  the  wall. 
Some  were  lying  on  paper,  others  on  the  bare  floor.  Some  were 
partly  covered  by  their  overcoats;  some  had  no  overcoats.  It 
is  an  art  to  curl  up  under  an  overcoat.  One  man  of  fifty  years 
or  more  had  removed  his  shirt  and  trousers  and  was  using  the 
latter  for  a  pillow.  He  had  tied  his  shoes  to  his  trousers  which  is 
evidence  that  he  knew  “flop”  house  ethics.  When  men  sleep  in 
box  cars  they  sometimes  use  their  shoes  for  pillows  but  this  is  not 
necessary  in  “Hogan’s.”  A  planking  around  the  walls  affords 
a  resting  place  for  weary  heads. 

A  number  of  the  faces  here  I  had  seen  a  great  many  times  on 
the  “stem.”  Two  were  old  men  in  their  seventies  who  had  been 
in  the  city  several  years  and  were  mendicants  most  of  the  time. 
There  was  a  one-legged  man  whom  I  had  seen  chumming  with 
another  one-legged  man  on  the  streets.  Both  peddled  lead 
pencils  and  shoestrings.  On  the  only  cot  on  the  floor,  two  young 
fellows  were  lying.  They  were  sleeping  with  their  heads  at 
opposite  ends  of  the  narrow  bed  and  their  bodies  were  entangled 
to  prevent  their  falling  off. 

I  found  a  vacant  place  on  the  floor  where  I  could  have  about 
two  feet  between  myself  and  my  nearest  neighbor  so  I  spread  my 
papers  and  lay  down.  I  had  more  paper  than  I  needed  so  I  gave 
half  to  another  man  who  was  just  circling  about  for  a  place  to  go 
to  bed.  I  asked  the  man  nearest  me  if  the  bugs  bothered  much. 
He  answered  in  the  richest  of  Irish  brogues  that  Hogan’s  bugs 
were  sure  efficient.  Another  man  chimed  in.  He  said  they  were 
better  organized  than  the  German  army.  How  well  organized 
they  were  I  can’t  say  but  I  was  not  long  in  learning  that  they 
were  enterprising. 

Two  men  near  me  engaged  in  a  discussion  about  the  economic 
conference  at  Genoa.  One  man  had  very  positive,  orderly  ideas 
of  how  things  should  go.  The  other  interrupted  occasionally 
only  to  agree.  Someone  wanted  to  know  why  he  didn’t  hire  a 
hall.  Then  there  was  silence,  except  for  snores.  I  never  heard 
such  a  variety  of  snores  but  none  of  them  seemed  to  suggest 
peaceful  slumbers  or  pleasant  dreaming.  Once  the  snores  were 
broken  into  by  some  man  bawling  out,  “Hey,  you;  quit  spittin’ 
over  this  way;  you’re  gettin’ it  on  my  paper.”  “Well,  dammit; 


HOBOHEMIA 


33 


How  much  room  do  you  want  to  take  up  ?”  His  neighbor 

retorted,  “It’s  none  of  your - business  how  much  room  I  take. 

You  lay  ofF’n  that  spittin’,  see.” 

More  snores.  A  man  got  up,  stretched,  rubbed  his  legs,  came 
to  the  center  of  the  room  to  the  stove.  More  snores.  Some 
men  came  in,  paid  their  dimes  and  looked  for  an  opening  on  the 
floor.  A  man  ran  to  the  toilet  to  vomit.  A  wag  called  to  him 
to  “heave  it  up.” 

After  an  hour  or  so  I  felt  something  on  my  hand.  I  crushed 
it.  There  were  others  to  be  seen  on  the  white  papers.  I  lay 
down  to  try  to  sleep  again.  A  second  attack  brought  me 
suddenly  to  my  feet.  I  lay  down  resolved  a  third  time  not  to  be 
disturbed.  My  companions  seemed  to  be  suffering  more  from 
the  hard  floor  than  anything  else;  and  the  floor  was  hard.  I 
turned  my  thoughts  to  the  hardness  of  the  floor  at  “Hogan’s.” 

How  long  I  dozed  I  can’t  say  but  I  awoke  marveling  at  the 
endurance  of  the  man  of  the  road.  While  I  pondered  thus  a 
man  jumped  to  his  feet  and  hastened  out.  He  was  cursing  the 
bugs  and  saying  that  he  knew  an  engine  room  that  had  this  “  place 
beat  all  hollow.”  I  felt  better.  Someone  else  had  weakened 
first.  I  got  up  and  started  home.  It  was  two-thirty. 

RESTAURANTS  AND  LUNCHROOMS 

Hobohemian  restaurants  serve  meals  for  a  half 
or  a  third  of  the  prices  current  in  the  Loop.  In  some 
of  these  lunchrooms  the  charges  are  so  low  that  one 
marvels.  However,  the  food  is  coarse  and  poor  and 
the  service  rough  and  ready. 

The  homeless  man  is  as  casual  in  his  eating  as  he 
is  in  his  work.  He  usually  gives  all  the  restaurants 
a  trial.  If  he  has  any  money  when  meal  time  comes 
he  generally  does  a  little  “window  shopping.”  He 
meanders  up  and  down  the  street  reading  the  bills  of 
fare  in  the  windows.  The  Hobohemian  restaurants 
know  this  and  accordingly  use  window  displays  to 
attract  the  roaming  patron.  Food  is  placed  in  the 
windows,  cooking  is  done  within  sight  of  the  street, 
but  the  chief  means  of  attraction  are  the  menus 


34 


THE  HOBO 


chalked  on  the  windows.  The  whole  window  is 
sometimes  lettered  up  with  special  entrees  of  the  day. 
Some  of  these  bills  of  fare  are  interesting. 

Gus’s  place  on  South  Halsted  Street  near  the 
Academy  Theater,  July  28,  1922,  displayed  the 
following: 


Pig’s  Snouts  and  Cab¬ 
bage  or  Kraut .  15c 

Corn  Beef  Hash .  10c 

Hamburger  Roast.  ...  10c 

Liver  and  Onions .  15c 

Hungarian  Goulash .  .  .  20c 
Pig’s  Shank  and  Cab¬ 
bage  .  15c 

Spare  Ribs  and  Cabbage  20c 


Pig’s  Feet  and  Potato 


Salad .  15c 

Beef  Stew  and  Kraut .  .  15c 
Sausage  and  Mashed 

Potatoes .  15c 

Roast  Beef .  20c 

Roast  Pork .  25c 

T-Bone  Steak . 30c 


The  same  day  the  James  Restaurant  on  Madison 
Street  near  Desplaines  advertised  the  following  under 
the  caption,  “A  Full  Meal  for  Ten  Cents”: 


Veal  Loaf .  10c 

Sardines  and  Potato 

Salad .  ioc 

Hamburger  and  One 

Egg .  ioc 

Baked  Beans .  ioc 

Liver  and  Onions .  ioc 

Corn  Beef  Plain .  ioc 

Macaroni  Italian .  ioc 

Three  Eggs  any  Style  15c 
Kidney  Stew .  ioc 


Sausage  and  Mashed 

Potatoes .  ioc 

Brown  Hash  and  One 

Egg .  ioc 

Liver  and  Brown 

Gravy .  ioc 

Salt  Pork  Plain .  ioc 

Salmon  and  Potato 

Salad .  ioc 

Corn  Flakes  and  Milk  5c 

Four  Eggs  any  Style. .  20c 


One  eating-house  on  West  Madison  Street  is 
“The  Home  Restaurant,  Meals  Fifteen  Cents  and 
Up.”  This  is  a  popular  appeal.  Restaurants  fre¬ 
quently  advertise  “Home  Cooking,”  “Home  Made 
Bread,”  “Home  Made  Coffee,”  “Doughnuts  Like 
Mother  Used  to  Make.” 


A  DINING-ROOM  ON  THE  “MAIN  STEM” 


. 


EMPLOYMENT  OFFICE 

Universal  Portland  Cement  Co. 


FREE  EMPLOYMENT  OFFICE 

HO  FEE  FREE  TRANSPOPT&T18M 


8OAH0 


»OGM 


COKt 

SWEJi.S 


MEN  WANTED 


EMPLOYMENT  BUREAUS  OFFER  OPPORTUNITY  FOR 

TRAVEL 


HOBOHEMIA 


35 


At  meal  time,  especially  at  noon,  scores  of  men 
flock  into  these  eating-houses.  The  men,  a  noisy 
and  turbulent  crowd,  call  out  their  orders,  which 
are  shouted  by  the  waiters  to  the  cooks  who  set  out 
without  ceremony  the  desired  dishes.  Four  or  five 
waiters  are  able  to  attend  to  the  wants  of  a  hundred 
or  more  men  during  the  course  of  an  hour.  The 
waiters  work  like  madmen  during  the  rush  hours, 
speeding  in  with  orders,  out  with  dirty  dishes.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  course  of  this  hour  a  waiter  becomes  literally 
plastered  with  splashes  of  coffee,  gravy,  and  soup. 
The  uncleanliness  is  revolting  and  the  waiters  are 
no  less  shocking  than  the  cooks  and  dishwashers.  In 
the  kitchens  uncleanliness  reaches  its  limit. 

But  what  is  the  opinion  of  the  patron  ?  They 
know  that  the  hamburger  is  generally  mixed  with 
bread  and  potatoes,  that  the  bread  is  usually  stale, 
that  the  milk  is  frequently  sour.  There  are  few  who 
do  not  abhor  the  odors  of  the  cheap  restaurant,  but 
a  steady  patron  reasons  thus:  “I  don’t  allow  myself 
to  see  things,  and  as  long  as  the  eyes  don’t  see  the 
heart  grieves  not.” 

OUTFITTING  STORES  AND  CLOTHING  EXCHANGES 

The  hobo  seldom  dresses  up.  If  he  does  it  is 
evidence  that  he  is  making  an  effort  to  get  out  of  his 
class.  When  he  does  buy  clothing,  either  rough 
clothing  or  a  good  “front,”  he  finds  his  way  to  places 
where  new  clothes  are  on  sale  at  astonishingly  low 
prices.  The  seasonal  laborer’s  outfitters  handle  a 
very  cheap  grade  of  goods.  Much  of  it  is  out  of 
date  and  either  shopworn  or  soiled.  Cheap  clothing 
stores  are  not  peculiar  to  Hobohemia,  but  here  they 
cater  to  the  wants  of  the  homeless  man. 


36 


THE  HOBO 


Clothing  exchanges,  which  is  a  polite  term  for 
second-hand  clothing  stores,  are  numerous  in  Hobo- 
hemia.  There  are  many  of  them  along  North  Clark 
Street  and  west  of  Clark  on  Chicago  Avenue.  These 
establishments  make  a  specialty  of  buying  slightly 
worn  clothing,  sample  suits  and  overcoats  from 
broken  lots,  which  they  sell  at  remarkably  low  prices. 

Second-hand  clothing  stores  are  not  entirely 
monopolized  by  the  hobo  trade,  but  the  veteran 
hobo  knows  of  their  existence  and  he  knows  how  to 
drive  a  bargain. 

The  cobbler  who  deals  in  shoes,  both  second-hand 
and  new,  as  a  sideline,  gets  his  share  of  the  Hobo- 
hemian  trade.  Coming  off  the  road  with  a  roll,  the 
hobo  is  likely  to  invest  in  a  whole  outfit — shoes,  suit, 
and  overcoat — only  to  sell  them  again  in  a  few  days 
when  he  is  broke.  The  second-hand  dealer  meets 
him  both  ways,  coming  and  going. 

PAWN  SHOPS 

Pawn  shops  are  not  typical  of  Hobohemia.  They 
are  usually  located  in  that  region  just  outside  the 
limits  of  the  lodging-houses,  a  sort  of  border  land 
between  respectability  and  the  down-and-outs.  Not 
that  the  hobo  is  unwilling,  when  he  is  broke,  to  put 
anything  valuable  he  happens  to  have  in  “hock,” 
but  usually  he  does  not  happen  to  have  anything 
valuable.  Still  there  are  men  who  make  a  practice 
of  carrying  a  watch  or  a  ring  upon  which,  in  case  of 
need,  they  can  raise  a  few  dollars. 

Pawn  shops  are,  to  a  limited  extent,  clothing 
exchanges.  They  are  places  where  the  hobo  does 
much  of  his  buying  and  selling  of  tools,  fire  arms, 
leather  goods,  jewelry,  and  like  articles  of  that  sort. 


HOBOHEMIA 


37 


MOVIES  AND  BURLESQUES 

Commercialized  entertainment  has  had  difficulty 
in  getting  a  foothold  in  Hobohemia.  The  movie  has 
firmly  established  itself  on  the  border  land,  where  it 
may  be  patronized  by  both  the  transient  and  the 
resident  population.  The  movies  put  the  admission 
fee  at  ten  cents.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  one  on 
South  Halsted  Street  which  charges  only  a  nickel. 
The  pictures  shown  in  these  houses  have  usually 
passed  from  the  first-class  theaters  through  the  vari¬ 
ous  grades  of  cheaper  houses  until  finally  they  arrive 
here  much  out  of  date,  badly  scarred,  and  so 
scratched  that  they  irritate  the  eyes. 

Vaudeville  and  burlesque  have  become  fully 
established  on  the  South  Side.  Certain  of  these 
theaters  cater  to  “men  only.”  Advertisements  of 
“classy  girls,”  “bathing  beauties,”  or  “fancy  danc¬ 
ing”  have  a  strange  attraction  for  the  homeless  and 
lonely  men. 

Many  men  in  the  Hobohemian  population  do  not 
patronize  either  the  movie  or  the  burlesque.  Those 
who  do  are  sometimes  merely  looking  for  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  sit  down  in  quiet  for  an  hour.  Some 
theaters,  in  recognition  of  this  fact,  extend  an  invita¬ 
tion  to  the  audience  to  “Stay  as  Long  as  You  Like.” 
This  draws  a  great  many  men,  especially  in  cold 
weather. 


BARBER  COLLEGES  AND  BARBERS 

Chicago  has  several  barber  colleges  in  close  prox¬ 
imity  to  the  “stem.”  Four  of  them  are  located  on 
West  Madison  Street  and  most  of  them  are  so 
situated  that  they  can  attract  men  who  are  willing 
to  submit  to  the  inexperienced  efforts  of  students. 


38 


THE  HOBO 


Students  must  have  practice,  and  here  are  men,  who 
as  they  themselves  say,  can  stand  it. 

The  cheap  rooming-houses  do  not  always  offer 
facilities  for  shaving,  so  they  are  willing  to  sacrifice 
themselves  in  the  interest  of  education  and  art.  If 
they  are  fortunate  they  may  be  served  by  a  Senior, 
but  they  always  are  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands 
of  a  Freshman.  Hair  cuts  cost  ten  or  fifteen  cents. 
This  is  governed  by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
The  colleges  must  have  patrons  to  keep  the  students 
busy.  The  lady  barber  flourishes  in  Hobohemia. 
The  hobo,  at  least,  seems  to  have  no  prejudice  against 
a  razor  being  wielded  by  feminine  hands. 

BOOKSTORES 

Hobohemia  has  its  bookstores  where  new  and 
second-hand  books  are  sold.  The  “Hobo  Book¬ 
store,”  sometimes  called  the  “Proletariat,”  located 
at  1237  West  Madison  Street,  is  the  best  known. 
This  place  makes  a  specialty  of  periodicals  of  a 
radical  nature  which  are  extensively  read  by  the 
“bos.”  A  large  line  of  books  on  many  subjects  are 
sold,  but  they  are  chiefly  the  paper-bound  volumes 
that  the  transient  can  afford.  The  “Radical  Book 
Shop,”  located  on  North  Clark  Street,  is  popular 
among  the  intellectuals  who  pass  their  time  in  “Bug- 
house  Square.” 

SALOONS  AND  SOFT  DRINK  STANDS 

The  saloon  still  lives  in  Hobohemia,  though  with 
waning  prestige.  The  flve-cent  schooner  and  the 
free  lunch  of  pre-war  days  have  passed,  but  the 
saloons  are  far  from  being  dead.  One  can  still  get 
a  “kick”  out  of  stuff  that  is  sold  across  the  bar,  but 


HOBOHEMIA 


39 


the  crowds  do  not  gather  as  before  prohibition. 
Formerly,  men  who  got  drunk  were  kept  inside,  today 
they  are  hustled  outside  or  at  least  kept  out  of  sight. 
As  the  saloon  has  lost  its  prestige,  the  bootlegger  has 
gained,  and  the  “drunks”  for  which  he  is  responsible 
parade  the  streets  or  litter  the  alleys. 

Fruit  and  soft  drink  stands  and  ice-cream  cone 
peddlers  are  in  evidence  since  prohibition.  Enthu¬ 
siastic  and  persistent  bootblacks  swarm  in  the  streets 
and  Gypsy  fortune-tellers  who  hail  every  passer-by 
for  the  privilege  of  “reading”  his  mind,  and,  perhaps, 
in  order  to  turn  a  trick  at  his  expense. 

THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

Standards  of  living  are  low  in  Hobohemia.  Flops 
are  unwholesome  and  unsanitary.  Efforts  have  been 
made  to  improve  these  conditions,  but  they  have  not 
been  wholly  successful.  The  Salvation  Army  and  the 
Dawes  hotels  have  improved  the  lodging-houses.  But 
the  municipal  free  lodging-house  has  been  opposed  by 
the  police  on  the  ground  that  it  was  already  too  pop¬ 
ular  among  casual  and  migratory  workers.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  any  other  effort  to  deal  with  the 
problem  from  the  point  of  view  of  philanthropy. 

The  only  other  alternative  would  seem  to  be  to 
encourage  the  migratory  workers  to  organize  to  help 
themselves.  This  is  difficult  but  not  impossible,  but 
the  history  of  these  efforts  is  another  chapter  in  the 
story  of  Hobohemia. 


CHAPTER  IV 

“GETTING  BY”  IN  HOBOHEMIA 

A  MAN  who  is  conservative  can  live  in  Hobo- 
hemia  on  a  dollar  a  day.  If  he  is  not  too 
fastidious  he  can  live  for  sixty  cents,  including  a  bed 
every  night.  Sleeping  in  a  ten-cent  “flop”  and  stick¬ 
ing  to  coffee  and  rolls,  he  can  get  along  for  fifty 
cents.  Old  men  who  do  not  move  around  much  will 
live  a  long  time  on  “coffee-an’,”  which  they  can  get 
at  the  average  restaurant  for  a  nickel.  The  man 
who  is  reduced  to  “coffee-an’,”  however,  has  touched 
bedrock. 

An  old  beggar  who  lingers  about  the  Olive  Branch  Mission 
on  South  Desplaines  Street  claims  that  if  he  were  guaranteed 
forty  cents  a  day  he  could  get  on  nicely.  This  would  give  him 
a  bed  every  night  and,  as  he  says,  a  good  bed  is  sometimes  better 
than  a  meal. 

The  daily  routine  of  this  old  man’s  life  rarely  takes  him 
beyond  the  limits  of  a  single  block.  On  the  south  side  of  Madi¬ 
son  Street,  between  62  Desplaines  Street  and  the  Transedes 
Hotel,  he  is  at  home.  All  else  is,  for  him,  the  open  sea.  When 
he  ventures  beyond  the  limits  of  this  area  into  outlying  territory 
he  plans  the  trip  the  day  before. 

There  are  perhaps  a  hundred  old  men  on  South  State  and 
West  Madison  streets  whose  interests  and  ambitions  have  shrunk 
to  the  same  unvarying  routine  and  the  same  narrow  limits.1 

Every  man  who  enters  Hobohemia  is  struggling  to 
live  above  the  “coffee-an’”  level,  and  the  various 
devices  that  are  employed  in  accomplishing  this  are 
often  ingenious.  This  business  of  wringing  from 
chance  source  enough  money  each  day  to  supply 
one’s  insistent  wants  is  known  on  the  “stem”  as 
“getting  by.”  “Getting  by”  may  mean  anything 
from  putting  in  a  few  hours  a  day  at  the  most  casual 

1  See  Document  18. 

40] 


HOBOHEMIA 


41 


labor  to  picking  a  pocket  or  purloining  an  overcoat. 
It  includes  working  at  odd  jobs,  peddling  small 
articles,  street  faking,  “putting  over”  old  and  new 
forms  of  grafts,  “working”  the  folks  at  home, 
“white  collar”  begging,  stealing,  and  “jack  rolling.” 

WORKING  AT  ODD  JOBS 

In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  to  the  contrary, 
the  hobo  is  a  worker.  He  is  not  a  steady  worker  but 
he  earns  most  of  the  money  he  spends.  There  are 
migratory  casual  workers,  who  spend  three  or  four 
months  each  year  in  a  Chicago  lodging-house,  who 
never  look  to  the  public  for  assistance.  They  know 
how  much  money  they  will  need  to  tide  them  over 
the  winter,  and  they  have  learned  to  spread  it  thin 
to  make  it  reach.  Casual  in  their  work,  they  are 
conservative  in  their  spending. 

There  are  others  who  are  never  able  to  save  any¬ 
thing.  No  matter  how  much  they  bring  to  town 
they  soon  spend  it.  For  these  the  odd  job  is  the 
likeliest  means  of  livelihood.  In  a  city  like  Chicago 
there  are  almost  always  opportunities  for  men  who 
are  content  to  take  small  jobs.  Every  restaurant 
must  have  dishwashers  and  waiters.  Every  hotel 
needs  porters;  every  saloon  or  pool  hall  employs  men 
to  do  odd  jobs.  Petty  as  these  jobs  are  and  little  as 
they  pay,  men  not  only  take  but  seek  them.  One 
man  who  has  been  twenty  years  on  West  Madison 
Street  is  working  as  night  clerk  in  a  lodging-house; 
another  does  janitor  work  at  nights  and  loafs  day¬ 
time;  still  another  has  been  for  some  time  a  potato 
peeler  in  a  Madison  Street  restaurant. 

Men  who  spurn  steady  jobs  in  favor  of  petty  ones 
with  pay  every  night  sometimes  do  so  because  they 


42 


THE  HOBO 


hate  to  leave  the  street.  Often  it  is  because  they  are 
not  properly  clad  or  have  no  money  to  pay  their  way. 

PEDDLING  A  DEVICE  FOR  “GETTING  BY” 

In  the  eyes  of  the  law,  peddling  in  Chicago,  at 
least,  is  not  begging.1  Nevertheless  much  of  the 
peddling  in  the  streets  is  merely  legalized  begging. 
Usually  the  articles  offered  for  sale  are  cheap  wares 
which  are  disposed  of  for  whatever  “you  care  to 
give.”  Not  infrequently  the  buyer  gives  four  times 
what  the  article  is  worth.  There  are  hundreds  of 
cripples  in  Chicago  who  gain  a  livelihood  by  selling 
pencils  or  shoestrings.  Many  of  these  are  home¬ 
less  men.  Pencils  bought  for  thirty-five  cents  a 
dozen  retail  for  a  dime,  or  whatever  the  purchaser 
cares  to  tax  himself.  A  peddler's  license  is  a  protec¬ 
tion  against  the  police  and  serves  as  a  moral  prop  to 
the  beggar. 

A  peddler  of  shoestrings  and  pencils  usually 
measures  his  success  by  the  number  of  sales  made 
in  which  no  change  is  asked.  He  expects  to  be 
overpaid.  Sometimes  he  persuades  himself  he  is 
entitled  to  be  overpaid.  The  business  of  “getting 
by”  by  “touching  hearts”  is  usually  spoken  of  as 
“work.”  A  peddler  who  works  the  North  Side 
will  say:  “I  didn’t  work  yesterday;  the  day  before 
I  made  three  dollars  and  eighty-five  cents.”  This 
man  considers  himself  a  real  cripple,  because  he  has 
locomotor  ataxia.  He  is  incensed  when  he  meets  a 
one-armed  peddler,  because  a  man  with  one  arm  is 
not  a  real  cripple.  Real  cripples  should  have  first 
consideration.  An  able-bodied  man  who  begs  when 

1  The  mayor’s  office  issued  about  6,000  free  permits  in  1922  to  peddle 
from  house  to  house  (not  from  wagon  or  cart),  from  basket  or  other  receptacle, 
only  for  a  period  of  sixty  days. 


HOBOHEMIA 


43 


broke  is  beneath  contempt.  That  is  “panhandling” 
and  an  able-bodied  “panhandler”  is  always  con¬ 
sidered  despicable. 

Many  peddlers  live  in  Hobohemian  hotels,  and 
spend  their  leisure  on  the  “stem.”  When  they  go  to 
“work”  they  take  a  car.  Some  of  them  have  regular 
stands.  Not  infrequently  a  peddler  will  assume  to 
monopolize  a  position  in  front  of  a  church  or  near  the 
entrance  of  a  factory  where  girls  go  and  come.  Beg¬ 
gars  have  a  liberal  fund  of  knowledge  about  pay 
days.  They  know  the  factories  where  the  workers, 
when  they  have  money,  are  “good.” 

STREET  FAKING 

The  chief  difference  between  peddling  and  street 
faking  is  one  of  method.  The  peddler  appeals  to 
the  individual;  the  faker  appeals  to  the  crowd. 
The  faker  is  a  salesman.  He  “pulls”  a  stunt  or 
makes  a  speech  to  attract  the  crowd.  The  peddler 
is  more  than  often  a  beggar.  It  requires  consider¬ 
ably  more  initiative  and  force  to  play  the  role  of  a 
street  faker  than  to  peddle. 

Almost  any  time  of  the  day  at  some  street  corner 
of  the  “stem”  one  may  see  a  faker  with  a  crowd 
around  him.  His  wares  consist  perhaps  of  combina¬ 
tion  sets  of  cuff  buttons  and  collar  buttons,  or  some 
other  such  “line.”  Success  depends  upon  the  nov¬ 
elty  of  the  article  offered.  A  new  line  of  goods  is 
much  sought  after  and  a  good  street  faker  changes  his 
line  from  time  to  time.  Many  fakers  are  homeless 
men.  Numbers  of  the  citizens  of  Hobohemia  have 
tried  their  hand  at  some  time  or  other  at  this  kind  of 
salesmanship.  Those  who  are  able  to  “put  it  over” 
generally  stay  with  the  work. 


44 


THE  HOBO 


Peddling  jewelry  is  one  old  device  for  getting 
money,  but  it  is  not  too  old  to  succeed.  There  are 
men  who  carry  with  them  cheap  rings  or  watches 
which  they  sell  by  approaching  the  prospective 
buyers  individually.  Sometimes  they  gather  a  crowd 
around  them  but  that  rarely  succeeds  as  well  as  when 
they  work  quietly.  A  faker  may  sit  beside  a  man  in 
a  park  or  approach  him  on  the  street  and  proffer  a 
ring  or  watch  or  pair  of  eyeglasses  for  sale  cheap,  on 
the  grounds  that  he  is  broke.  Sometimes  he  will 
pretend  that  he  found  the  article  and  would  like  to 
get  a  little  money  for  it.  Often  he  will  tell  of  some 
sentiment  connected  with  an  article  that  he  is  trying 
to  dispose  of.  A  man  may  have  a  ring  that  his 
mother  gave  him  and  he  will  only  part  with  it  on  con¬ 
dition  that  he  might  have  the  privilege  of  redeeming 
it  later.  If  he  thought  he  could  not  redeem  it  he 
would  rather  starve  than  part  with  it,  etc.  Hobos 
are  often  the  victims  as  well  as  the  perpetrators  of 
these  fakes. 

GRAFTS  OLD  AND  NEW 

Few  of  these  tricks  are  new  but  none  of  them  are 
so  old  that  they  do  not  yield  some  return.  They 
probably  owe  their  long  life  to  the  proverbial  identity 
of  fundamental  human  nature  wherever  it  is  found. 

One  of  the  most  ancient  and  universal  forms  of 
deception  is  the  fake  disease.  In  Hobohemia  a  pre¬ 
tended  affliction  is  called  “jiggers”  or  “bugs.” 

4.  L.  J.  appealed  to  the  Jewish  Charities  with  a  letter  signed 
by  a  doctor  in  a  hospital  in  Hot  Springs  saying  that  he  had 
treated  L.  J.  who  was  suffering  from  syphilis  and  that  his  eyes 
were  affected  and  he  would  “undoubtedly  go  blind.”  It  was 
learned  later  that  this  letter  was  a  forgery  as  were  other  creden¬ 
tials  that  the  man  carried.  He  had  been  in  a  hospital  and  had 


HOBOHEMIA 


45 


been  treated  for  a  venereal  disease.  While  there  he  familiarized 
himself  enough  with  the  terminology  of  the  disease  so  that  he 
could  talk  with  some  intelligence  about  his  case.  He  would  say 
with  conviction,  “I  know  I’m  going  blind  before  long.”  It 
further  developed  that  he  had  been  exploiting  charity  organiza¬ 
tions  in  several  cities.  Before  his  entry  upon  this  deception  it 
was  learned  that  he  had  earned  a  prison  record. 

An  ancient  ruse  is  to  feign  to  be  deaf  and  dumb. 
A  man  who  played  “deaf-and-dumb”  worked  restau¬ 
rants,  drug  stores,  groceries,  and  other  places  of  busi¬ 
ness.  He  would  enter  the  places  and  stand  with  cap 
in  hand.  Never  would  he  change  the  expression  of 
his  face,  regardless  of  what  was  said  or  done.  When 
spoken  to  he  would  point  to  his  ears  and  mouth 
until  he  received  some  money,  and  then  he  would 
bow.  If  there  was  a  chance  of  getting  something,  he 
would  never  leave  a  place  unless  he  was  in  danger  of 
being  thrown  out.  An  investigator  followed  him  for 
two  hours  before  he  learned  he  was  neither  deaf  nor 
dumb.  Three  months  later  he  met  the  same  man 
working  the  same  graft  in  another  part  of  the  city. 

“The  hat  trick,”  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  is  a 
popular  means  of  “getting  by.”  On  a  Sunday,  a 
holiday,  or  indeed  any  evening,  the  streets  of  Hobo- 
hemia  are  likely  to  be  enlivened  by  men  who  have  a 
message,  haranguing  the  crowds.  They  may  be 
selling  papers  or  books  on  the  proletarian  movement. 
In  any  case,  most  of  them  terminate  their  speeches  by 
passing  the  hat.  Few  speakers  spend  their  eloquence 
on  the  audiences  of  Hobohemia  without  asking  some¬ 
thing  in  return.  It  must  not  be  assumed  that  these 
men  are  all  insincere.  Many  of  them  are,  but  most 
of  them  are  in  the  “game”  for  the  money  it  yields. 
One  of  these  orators  is  conspicuous  because  his  stock 


46 


THE  HOBO 


in  trade  is  a  confession  that  he  is  not  like  the  other 
speakers.  He  admits  that  he  is  out  for  bed  and 
board.  He  will  talk  on  any  subject,  will  permit  him¬ 
self  to  be  laughed  at,  and  jollied  by  the  crowd,  but 
when  he  passes  the  hat  he  usually  gets  enough  for 
another  day’s  board. 

The  missions  attract  men  who  are  religious  pri¬ 
marily  for  profit.  Many  who  are  really  sincere  find 
it  more  profitable  to  be  on  the  Lord’s  side.  Nearly 
every  mission  has  a  corps  of  men  who  perform  the 
“hat  trick”  by  going  from  house  to  house  begging 
old  clothes  or  cash  or  whatever  the  people  care  to 
give.  The  collector’s  conscience  is  the  only  check  on 
the  amount  of  money  taken  in.  Some  missions 
divide  all  cash  collections  with  the  solicitors.  Some¬ 
times  the  collector  gets  as  much  as  fifty  cents  on  the 
dollar. 

The  exploitation  of  children  is  as  old  as  the  history 
of  vagrancy.  Even  the  tramp  has  learned  that  on 
the  road  boys  may  be  used  to  get  money.  A  boy 
can  beg  better  than  an  older  man,  and  frequently 
men  will  chum  with  boys  for  the  advantages  such 
companionships  give  them.  Boys  who  are  new  on 
the  road  are  often  willing  to  be  exploited  by  a  vet¬ 
eran  in  exchange  for  the  things  they  can  learn  from 
him. 

“working  the  folks” 

There  is  a  type  of  tramp  who  lives  on  his  bad 
reputation.  He  may  have  been  sent  away  for  the 
sake  of  the  family,  or  have  fled  for  safety,  or  he  may 
have  gone  voluntarily  to  start  life  anew.  Seldom 
does  he  succeed,  but  family  pride  stands  between 
him  and  his  return.  He  capitalizes  the  fact  that  his 
family  does  not  want  him  to  return. 


HOBOHEMIA 


47 


Such  a  man  resides  on  South  State  Street.  He 
comes  from  a  good  family  but  his  relatives  do  not 
care  to  have  him  about.  He  is  fat  and  greasy  and 
dirty;  he  seems  to  have  no  opinions  of  his  own;  is 
always  getting  into  people’s  way  and  making  himself 
disagreeable  by  his  effort  to  be  sociable.  His  rela¬ 
tives  pay  him  four  dollars  a  week  to  stay  in  Chicago. 
On  that  amount,  with  what  he  can  earn,  he  is  able 
to  live.1 

Another  man  raises  funds  now  and  then  when  he 
is  broke  by  writing  or  telegraphing  that  he  is  think¬ 
ing  about  returning  home.  His  return  means 
trouble.  His  requests  for  assistance  are  a  kind 
of  blackmail  levied  on  the  family.2 

“white  collar”  begging 

Most  interesting  among  the  beggars  is  the  man, 
the  well-dressed  and  able-bodied  individual,  who  begs 
on  the  strength  of  his  affiliations.  These  are  the  men 
who  make  a  specialty  of  exploiting  their  membership 
in  fraternal  organizations.  Labor  unions  are  very 
much  imposed  upon  by  men  who  carry  paid-up  cards 
but  who  are  temporarily  “down.”  The  organiza¬ 
tions  as  such  are  not  appealed  to  as  much  as  individ¬ 
ual  members.  It  is  hard  for  a  union  man  who  is 
working  to  turn  away  a  brother  who  shows  that  he 
is  in  good  standing  with  the  organization. 

Of  late  the  “ex-service-man”  story  has  been  a 
good  means  of  getting  consideration,  and  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Legion  buttons  have  been  worked  to  the  limit. 
Most  of  the  men  who  wear  parts  of  a  uniform  or 
other  insignia  indicative  of  military  service  have 

1  Unpublished  Document  hi. 

2  Unpublished  Document  112. 


48 


THE  HOBO 


really  seen  service  and  many  have  seen  action,  but  a 
great  many  of  them  have  heard  more  than  they  have 
seen. 

There  are  men  who  make  a  specialty  of  “  working  ” 
the  charity  organizations.  Some  of  them  are  so 
adept  that  they  know  beforehand  what  they  will  be 
asked  and  have  a  stereotyped  response  for  every 
stereotyped  question.  These  men  know  a  surprising 
amount  about  the  inside  workings  of  the  charitable 
agencies  and  they  generously  hand  on  their  informa¬ 
tion  to  their  successor.  They  usually  know,  for 
example,  what  material  aid  may  be  had  from  each 
organization.  A  typical  case  is  that  of  Brown. 

5.  Brown  had  not  been  in  Chicago  an  hour  until  he  had 
located  the  chief  organizations  to  which  he  might  go  for  help.  He 
knew  that  he  could  check  his  bag  at  the  Y.M.C.A.  He  learned 
where  to  go  for  a  bath,  where  to  get  clean  clothes,  how  to  get  a 
shave  and  haircut  and  he  actually  succeeded  in  getting  some 
money  from  the  United  Charities.  He  was  able  to  “flop”  in  a 
bed  even  though  he  came  to  town  without  money  late  in  the 
afternoon;  whereas  many  other  men  in  the  same  position  would 
have  been  forced  to  “carry  the  banner.”  He  knew  about  the 
charity  organizations  in  all  the  cities  he  had  visited  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  After  his  case  was  traced  it  was  learned 
that  he  told  about  the  same  story  wherever  he  went  and  that  he 
was  known  in  organizations  in  all  the  cities  to  which  he  referred. 
He  is  27  years  old  and  has  been  living  for  the  most  part  in  institu¬ 
tions  or  at  the  expense  of  organizations  since  he  was  13. 

6.  Another  case  is  that  of  P.  S.,  a  Jewish  boy  who  made  his 
way  between  New  York  and  Chicago  three  times  and  received 
accommodation  at  the  Jewish  charity  associations  in  nearly  every 
big  city  on  his  road  between  here  and  New  York.  He  is  a 
mental  case  and  goes  to  the  Charities  because  of  a  sense  of  help¬ 
lessness.  Since  the  last  contact  with  him  that  the  Chicago 
Jewish  charities  have  had  he  has  learned  to  get  over  the  country 
with  a  little  more  confidence  but  he  never  fails  to  hunt  up  the 
welfare  organization's  soon  as  he  comes  to  town.  He  was  last 

O  ftl 

heard  of  in  California. 


HOBOHEMIA 


49 


BORROWING  AND  BEGGING 

Nearly  every  homeless  man  “goes  broke”  at 
times.  Some  of  them  do  not  feel  that  a  trip  to  town 
has  been  a  success  if  they  return  to  the  job  with 
money  in  their  pockets.  On  the  other  hand,  they  do 
not  feel  that  they  have  had  their  money’s  worth 
unless  they  remain  in  town  a  week  or  two  after  they 
have  “blown  in.”  As  they  linger  they  face  the 
problem  of  living.  They  may  have  friends  but  that  is 
unusual.  The  homeless  man  used  to  get  advances 
from  the  saloon  keeper  with  whom  he  spent  his 
money.  Such  loans  were  often  faithfully  made  good, 
but  they  were  just  as  often  “beat.”  Prohibition  has 
put  an  end  to  that  kind  of  philanthropy. 

Many  of  the  men  who  visit  the  city  intermittently 
loaf  and  work  by  turns.  These  men  often  beg  but 
they  do  not  remain  at  it  long,  perhaps  a  day  or  so,  or 
until  disgust  seizes  them.  Often  when  they  beg  they 
are  drunk  or  “rum-dum.”  As  soon  as  they  are  sober 
they  quit.  Sometimes  they  succeed  in  attaching 
themselves  to  a  friend  who  has  just  arrived  with  a 
“roll.”  But  living  at  the  expense  of  another 
migrant  quickly  palls.  Soon  they  will  be  found 
scanning  the  “boards”  for  free  shipment  to  another 
job.  They  disappear  from  the  streets  for  a  season. 
As  soon  as  they  get  a  “stake,”  however,  they  will  be 
seen  again  treating  the  boys  and  swapping  stories 
on  the  “main  stem”;  if  not  in  Chicago,  then  in 
some  other  city.  It  is  the  life. 

The  more  interesting  types  are  those  who  live 
continuously  in  the  city  and  are  broke  most  of  the 
time.  Some  of  them  have  reduced  the  problem  of 
“getting  by”  to  an  art.  The  tramp  who  only 
occasionally  goes  “broke”  may  try  to  imitate  these 


50 


THE  HOBO 


types  but  he  soon  tires  of  the  game  and  goes  to  work. 
The  chief  classes  of  beggars  are  the  “panhandlers” 
and  the  “moochers.” 

The  “panhandler”  can  sometimes  extract  from 
the  pockets  of  others  what  amounts  to  large  sums  of 
money.  Some  “panhandlers”  are  able  to  beg  from 
ten  to  twenty  dollars  a  day.  The  “panhandler”  is 
a  beggar  who  knows  how  to  beg  without  loss  of 
dignity.  He  is  not  docile  and  fawning.  He  appeals 
in  a  frank,  open  manner  and  usually  “comes  away 
with  the  goods.”  The  “moocher”  begs  for  nickels 
and  dimes.  He  is  an  amateur.  He  goes  to  the  back 
door  of  a  house  or  hotel  and  asks  for  a  sandwich. 
His  appeal  is  to  pity. 

The  antagonisms  between  beggars  and  peddlers  are 
very  keen.  The  man  who  carries  a  permit  to  peddle 
has  no  respect  for  the  individual  who  merely  begs. 
Nevertheless,  some  peddlers,  when  business  is  slow, 
themselves  turn  beggars.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
man  who  begs  professes  to  consider  himself  far  more 
respectable  than  the  peddler  who  uses  his  license  as 
an  excuse  to  get  money.  This  is  the  language  and 
opinion  of  a  professional:  “Good  begging  is  far  more 
honorable  than  bad  peddling  and  most  of  this  shoe¬ 
string  and  lead  pencil  peddling  is  bad.  I  am  not 
going  to  beat  around  the  bush.  I  am  not  going  to  do 
any  of  this  petty  grafting  to  get  enough  to  live  on.”1 
These  antagonisms  are  evidence  of  a  struggle  for 
status.  When  a  peddler  denounces  the  beggars  he 
is  trying  to  justify  himself.  His  philosophy,  like 
most  philosophies,  is  an  attempt  to  justify  his  voca¬ 
tion.  The  same  is  true  of  plain  beggars.  Most  of 
them  are  able  to  justify  their  means  of  “getting  by.” 

1  Unpublished  Document  113. 


HOBOHEMIA 


51 


STEALING 

Hobos  are  not  clever  enough  to  be  first-class 
crooks  nor  daring  enough  to  be  classed  as  criminals. 
Yet  most  of  them  will  steal  something  to  eat.  There 
are  men  who  are  peculiarly  expert  at  stealing  food 
from  back-door  steps — pies  or  cakes  that  have  been 
set  out  to  cool,  for  example.  There  are  men  who 
wander  about  the  residential  areas,  in  order  to  steal 
from  back  doors.  Some  men  follow  the  milkman  as 
he  goes  from  door  to  door  delivering  milk  and 
cream,  in  order  to  steal  a  bottle  when  the  opportunity 
offers.  A  quart  of  milk  makes  an  excellent  break¬ 
fast. 

Stealing  becomes  serious  when  men  break  into 
stores  and  box  cars.  It  is  not  what  they  take  but 
what  they  spoil  that  does  the  damage.  This  is  the 
•  chief  complaint  of  the  railroad  against  the  tramp. 
In  the  country  the  tramp  is  often  destructive  to  the 
orchards  he  visits.  He  will  shake  down  more  fruit 
than  he  can  possibly  use  and  dig  up  a  dozen  hills  of 
potatoes  to  get  enough  for  a  “mulligan.” 

“jack  rolling” 

“Jack  rolling”  may  be  anything  from  picking  a 
man's  pocket  in  a  crowd  to  robbing  him  while  he  is 
drunk  or  asleep.  On  every  “stem”  there  are  a 
goodly  number  of  men  who  occasionally  or  continu¬ 
ally  “roll”  their  fellow-tramps.  Nearly  every  mi¬ 
grant  who  makes  periodical  trips  to  the  city  after 
having  saved  his  earnings  for  three  or  four  months 
can  tell  of  at  least  one  encounter  with  the  “jack 
roller.”  Scarcely  a  day  goes  by  on  Madison  Street 
but  some  man  is  relieved  of  a  “stake”  by  some 


52 


THE  HOBO 


“jack”  who  will,  perhaps,  come  around  later  and 
join  in  denouncing  men  who  will  rob  a  workingman. 

The  average  hobo  is  often  indiscreet  with  his 
money,  and  especially  so  when  he  is  drunk.  He 
often  displays  it,  even  scatters  it  at  times.  This  is  a 
great  temptation  to  men  who  have  been  living  “close 
to  their  bellies”  for  months.  As  unpopular  as  the 
“jack  roller”  is  among  the  tramps  there  are  few  who 
would  overlook  an  opportunity  to  take  a  few  dollars 
from  a  “drunk,”  seeing  that  he  was  in  possession  of 
money  that  someone  else  was  bound  to  take  sooner 
or  later. 

7.  An  investigator  became  acquainted  with  two  men  who 
were  jack  rollers  who  operated  on  Madison  Street  west  of  Halsted. 
They  were  well  dressed  for  the  “street”  though  not  so  well 
groomed  as  to  be  conspicuous.  The  investigator  pretended  to 
them  that  he  had  just  spent  ninety  days  in  the  jail  in  Salt  Lake 
City  for  “rolling”  a  drunk.  They  had  no  sympathy  for  a  man 
who  would  get  drunk  and  wallow  in  the  gutter.  “He’s  not 
entitled  to  have  any  money.”  Neither  of  these  men  drank  but 
they  “chased  women”  and  one  of  them  played  the  races.  Neither 
had  any  scruples  against  taking  money  from  a  drunken  or 
sleeping  man.  They  were  able  to  justify  themselves  as  easily 
as  the  peddlers  and  beggars  do.  Said  one  of  them,  “  Everybody 
is  eating  on  everybody  he  can  get  at,  and  they  don’t  care  where 
they  bite.  Believe  me,  as  long  as  I  can  play  safe  I’m  going  to 
get  mine.” 

“getting  by”  in  winter 

During  the  cold  winter  months  the  problem  of 
“getting  by”  becomes  serious.  In  the  spring,  sum¬ 
mer,  and  fall  hobos  can  sleep  in  the  parks,  in  vacant 
houses,  on  the  docks,  in  box  cars,  or  in  any  other 
place  where  they  may  curl  up  and  pass  a  few  hours 
in  slumber  without  fear  of  disturbance.  But  find¬ 
ing  “flops”  in  winter  usually  engages  the  best  effort 
a  “bo”  can  muster.  Besides  food  and  shelter,  the 


HOBOHEMIA 


53 


hobo  must  manage  in  some  way  to  secure  winter 
clothing.  Above  all  he  needs  shelter,  and  shelter 
for  the  man  without  money  is  not  easy  to  find  in  the 
city. 

The  best  scouting  qualities  the  average  man  can 
command  are  needed  to  get  along  in  winter.  There 
are  many  places  to  sleep  and  loaf  during  the  day,  but 
the  good  places  are  invariably  crowded.  For  sleep¬ 
ing  quarters  police  stations,  railroad  depots,  door¬ 
ways,  mission  floors,  and  even  poolrooms  are  pressed 
into  service.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  men  who  can¬ 
not  find  a  warm  place  to  sleep  to  walk  the  streets 
all  night.  This  practice  of  walking  the  streets  all 
night,  snatching  a  wink  of  sleep  here  and  a  little  rest 
there,  is  termed,  in  the  parlance  of  the  road,  “carry¬ 
ing  the  banner.”  He  who  “carries  the  banner” 
during  the  night  usually  tries  to  snatch  a  bit  of  sleep 
during  the  day  in  places  he  does  not  have  access  to 
in  the  night  time.  He  may  go  into  the  missions, 
but  in  cold  weather  the  missions  are  crowded. 
They  are  crowded  with  men  who  sit  for  hours  in  a 
stupor  between  sleeping  and  waking.  In  almost 
every  mission  on  the  “stem”  there  are  attendants 
known  as  “bouncers,”  whose  duties  during  the 
meetings  are  to  shake  and  harass  men  who  have  lost 
themselves  in  slumber. 

Lodging-houses  are  also  imposed  upon  by  men 
who  have  no  money  to  pay  for  a  bed  but  who  loaf 
in  the  lobbies  during  the  day.  Most  lodging-houses 
make  an  effort  to  keep  men  out  who  are  not  guests. 
Fear  is  instilled  into  their  hearts  by  occasionally 
calling  the  police  to  clear  the  lobbies  of  loafers.  All 
who  dare  spend  their  leisure  time  in  the  public  library, 
but  the  average  tramp,  unkempt  and  unclean  from  a 


54 


THE  HOBO 


night  on  the  street,  cannot  muster  sufficient  courage 
to  enter  a  public  library. 

The  missions  and  other  charity  organizations  play 
an  important  part  in  supplying  the  cold-weather 
wants  of  the  tramp.  They  usually  make  it  a  point 
to  get  on  hand  at  the  beginning  of  winter  a  large 
supply  of  overcoats,  or  “bennies,”  and  other  clothes 
that  are  either  sold  at  moderate  prices  or  are  given 
away.  Such  clothes  are  usually  solicited  from  the 
public,  and  the  men  on  the  “stem”  believe  that  they 
are  entitled  to  them.  Hence  each  man  makes  an 
effort  to  get  what  he  feels  is  coming  to  him.  When 
winter  comes  they  begin  to  bestir  themselves  and 
concoct  schemes  for  securing  the  desired  amount  of 
clothing  to  keep  out  the  cold.  During  the  winter 
time  many  of  these  men  will  submit  to  being  “con¬ 
verted”  in  order  to  get  food  and  shelter. 

Competition  between  homeless  men  in  winter  is 
keen.  Food  is  scarce,  jobs  are  less  plentiful,  people 
are  less  generous,  and  there  are  more  men  begging. 
Many  of  the  short-job  men  become  beggars  and  a 
large  number  of  those  who  are  able  to  peddle  during 
the  summer  likewise  enter  the  ranks  of  the  beggars. 
As  beggars  multiply,  the  housewife  is  less  generous 
with  the  man  at  the  back  door,  the  man  on  the  street 
also  hardens  his  heart,  and  the  police  are  called  on  for 
protection. 

8.  “Fat”  is  a  very  efficient  “panhandler.”  He  does  not 
always  “panhandle”  but  works  when  the  opportunities  present 
and  the  weather  permits.  He  gets  his  money  from  men  on  the 
street,  but  he  does  most  of  his  begging  in  winter  when  he  cannot 
get  the  courage  to  leave  town.  He  can  beg  for  three  or  four 
hours  and  obtain  about  three  dollars  in  that  time.  He  only 
“panhandles”  when  his  money  is  gone.  He  has  a  good  person¬ 
ality  and  appeals  for  help  in  a  frank,  open  manner  giving  no  hard- 


HOBOHEMIA 


55 


luck  story.  He  says  that  he  is  a  workingman  temporarily  down 
.and  that  he  is  trying  to  get  some  money  to  leave  town.  He 
does  not  work  the  same  street  every  day.  He  keeps  sober. 

He  has  no  moral  scruples  against  begging,  nor  against  work. 
He  works  and  works  well  when  circumstances  force  him  to  it. 
He  doesn’t  feel  mean  when  out  begging  or  “stemming.”  He 
looks  upon  it  as  a  legitimate  business  and  better  than  stealing, 
and  so  long  as  the  situation  is  such  he  might  as  well  make  the 
best  of  it.  He  seldom  “panhandles”  in  summer. 

He  has  an  interesting  philosophy.  He  calculates  that  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  law  of  averages  out  of  each  hundred  persons  he  begs, 
a  certain  number  will  turn  him  down,  a  certain  number  will 
“bawl  him  out,”  a  certain  number  will  give  him  advice,  and  a 
certain  number  will  give  him  something,  and  his  earnings  will 
average  about  three  dollars.  So  he  goes  at  the  job  with  vigor 
each  time  in  order  to  get  it  over  as  soon  as  possible.  “You  get 
to  expect  about  so  much  police  interference  and  so  much  opposi¬ 
tion  from  the  people,  and  you  get  more  of  this  in  winter  than  in 
summer,  but  that  is  the  case  in  whatever  line  you  go  into.” 

“Fat”  works  and  begs  as  the  notion  strikes  him  but  he  does 
less  begging  in  summer  and  less  work  in  winter.  If  he  doesn’t 
like  one  city  he  goes  to  another.  Last  winter  (1921-22)  he  was 
in  Chicago,  not  because  he  likes  Chicago  but  because  he  hap¬ 
pened  to  be  here. 

THE  GAME  OF  “  GETTING  BY” 

“Getting  by”  is  a  game  not  without  its  elements 
of  fascination.  The  man  who  “panhandles”  is 
getting  a  compensation  that  is  not  wholly  measured 
by  the  nickels  and  dimes  he  accumulates.  Even  the 
peddler  of  shoestrings  likes  to  think  of  “good  days” 
when  he  is  able  to  surpass  himself.  It  matters  not 
by  what  means  “the  down-and-out”  gets  his  living; 
he  manages  to  find  a  certain  satisfaction  in  the  game. 
The  necessity  of  “putting  it  over”  has  its  own 
compensations. 

No  group  in  Hobohemia  is  wholly  without  status. 
In  every  group  there  are  classes.  In  jail  grand 


56 


THE  HOBO 


larceny  is  a  distinction  as  against  petit  larceny.  In 
Hobohemia  men  are  judged  by  the  methods  they  use 
to  “get  by.”  Begging,  faking,  and  the  various  other 
devices  for  gaining  a  livelihood  serve  to  classify  these 
men  among  themselves.  It  matters  not  where  a 
man  belongs,  somewhere  he  has  a  place  and  that 
place  defines  him  to  himself  and  to  his  group.  No 
matter  what  means  an  individual  employs  to  get  a 
living  he  struggles  to  retain  some  shred  of  self-respect. 
Even  the  outcast  from  home  and  society  places  a  high 
value  upon  his  family  name. 

9.  S.  R.  is  an  Englishman  fifteen  years  in  this  country. 
When  he  came  to  the  United  States  to  earn  a  “stake”  he  left  his 
wife  in  England.  His  intention  was  to  save  enough  money  to 
send  for  her.  He  came  here  partly  to  overcome  his  love  for 
alcohol  but  he  found  as  much  drink  here  and  it  was  as  accessible. 
He  earned  “big  money”  as  a  bricklayer  but  he  never  saved  any. 
He  became  ashamed  of  himself  after  a  year  or  two  and  ceased  to 
write  to  his  wife.  That  is,  he  had  other  interests  here. 

Today  he  is  a  physical  wreck.  He  is  paralyzed  on  one  side 
and  he  is  also  suffering  from  tuberculosis  brought  on  by  injudi¬ 
cious  exposure  and  drink.  He  told  his  story  but  asked  that  his 
real  name,  which  he  told,  should  not  be  used.  For,  he  said,  “  I  am 
the  only  one  who  has  ever  disgraced  that  name.” 

Several  old  men  on  West  Madison  Street  are  liv¬ 
ing  on  mere  pittances  but  are  too  proud  to  go  to  the 
poorhouse.  They  much  prefer  to  take  their  chances 
with  other  mendicants.  They  want  to  play  the  game 
to  the  end.  As  long  as  they  are  able  to  totter  about 
the  street  and  hold  out  their  hands  they  feel  that  they 
are  holding  their  own.  To  go  to  an  institution 
would  mean  that  they  had  given  up.  Dependent  as 
they  are  and  as  pitiful  as  they  look,  they  still  have 
enough  self-respect  to  resent  the  thought  of  complete 
surrender. 


HOBOHEMIA 


57 


In  the  game  of  “getting  by”  the  homeless  man  is 
practically  sure  sooner  or  later  to  lose  his  economic 
independence.  At  any  time  (except  perhaps  in 
periods  of  prolonged  unemployment),  only  a  small 
proportion  of  homeless  men  are  grafters,  beggars, 
fakers,  or  petty  criminals.  Yet,  all  the  time,  the 
migratory  casual  workers  are  living  from  hand  to 
mouth,  always  perilously  near  the  margin  of  depend¬ 
ence.  Consequently,  few  homeless  men  have  not 
been  temporary  dependents,  and  great  numbers  of 
them  must  in  time  become  permanent  dependents. 

This  process  of  personal  degradation  of  the  migra¬ 
tory  casual  worker  from  economic  independence  to 
pauperism  is  only  an  aspect  of  the  play  of  economic 
forces  in  modern  industrial  society.  Seasonal  indus¬ 
tries,  business  cycles,  alternate  periods  of  employ¬ 
ment  and  of  unemployment,  the  casualization  of 
industry,  have  created  this  great  industrial  reserve 
army  of  homeless,  foot-loose  men  which  concentrates 
in  periods  of  slack  employment,  as  winter,  in  strategic 
centers  of  transportation,  our  largest  cities.  They 
must  live;  the  majority  of  them  are  indispensable  in 
the  present  competitive  organization  of  industry; 
agencies  and  persons  moved  by  religious  and  philan¬ 
thropic  impulses  will  continue  to  alleviate  their 
condition;  and  yet  their  concentration  in  increasing 
numbers  in  winter  in  certain  areas  of  our  large  cities 
cannot  be  regarded  otherwise  than  as  a  menace.  The 
policy  of  allowing  the  migratory  casual  laborer  to 
“get  by”  is,  however,  easier  and  cheaper  at  the 
moment,  even  if  the  prevention  of  the  economic 
deterioration  and  personal  degradation  of  the  home¬ 
less  men  would,  in  the  long  run,  make  for  social 
efficiency  and  national  economy. 


% 


PART  II 

TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


CHAPTER  V 

WHY  DO  MEN  LEAVE  HOME? 


WHY  are  there  tramps  and  hobos?  What  are 
the  conditions  and  motives  that  make  migra¬ 
tory  workers,  vagrants,  homeless  men  ?  Attempts 
to  answer  these  questions  have  invariably  raised  other 
questions  even  more  difficult  to  answer.  Homeless 
men  themselves  are  not  always  agreed  in  regard  to 
the  matter.  The  younger  men  put  the  blame  upon 
circumstance  and  external  conditions.  The  older 
men,  who  know  life  better,  are  humbler.  They  are 
disposed  to  go  to  the  other  extreme  and  put  all  the 
blame  on  themselves. 

io.  “My  old  man  tried  his  d — dest  to  get  me  to  go  to  school; 
but  no,  I  couldn’t  learn  anything  in  school.  I  could  make  my 
own  way.  I  could  get  along  without  the  old  man  or  his  advice. 
Well,  when  I  woke  up  I  was  forty  years  old,  of  course  it  was  too 
late.  I  couldn’t  go  back.  That’s  what’s  the  matter  with  half 
of  these  d — d  kids  on  the  road.  No  one  can  tell  them  anything. 
They’re  burning  up  to  learn  something  on  their  own  hook;  and 
they’ll  learn  it,  too.” 

From  the  records  and  observations  of  a  great 
many  men  the  reasons  why  men  leave  home  seem  to 
fall  under  several  heads:  (a)  seasonal  work  and 
unemployment,  (jb)  industrial  inadequacy,  (c)  defects 
of  personality,  (d)  crises  in  the  life  of  the  person, 
(e)  racial  or  national  discrimination,  and  (/)  wander¬ 
lust. 

SEASONAL  WORK  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT 

Chief  among  the  economic  causes  why  men  leave 
home  are  (i)  seasonal  occupations,  (2)  local  changes 
in  industry,  (3)  seasonal  fluctuations  in  the  demand 
for  labor,  and  (4)  periods  of  unemployment.  The 

[61 


62 


THE  HOBO 


cases  of  homeless  men  studied  in  Chicago  show  how 
these  conditions  of  work  tend  to  require  and  to  create 
the  migratory  worker. 

1)  The  industrial  attractions  of  seasonal  work 
often  make  a  powerful  appeal  to  the  foot-loose  man 
and  boy.  A  new  railroad  that  is  building,  a  mining 
camp  just  opening  up,  an  oil  boom  widely  advertised, 
a  bumper  crop  to  be  harvested  in  Kansas  or  the 
Dakotas  fire  the  imagination  and  bring  thousands  of 
recruits  each  year  into  the  army  of  seasonal  and 
migratory  workers. 

ii.  Fifty-eight  years  old  and  born  in  Belgium.  He  came  to 
this  country  with  his  parents  in  1882.  His  family  moved  to  a  farm 
in  northern  Wisconsin  where  they  remained  several  years.  The 
boy  worked  during  his  spare  time  in  the  woods.  His  father  soon 
became  tired  of  farming  and  decided  he  could  do  better  in  the  coal 
camps  of  southern  Illinois,  for  he  had  been  a  miner  in  Belgium. 
After  the  family  moved,  the  boy  grew  restless  in  the  mining  town 
and  decided  to  return  to  his  old  home  town  in  Wisconsin  where 
he  could  get  a  job  in  the  woods  which  was  more  to  his  liking.  For 
several  years  he  divided  his  time  between  the  northern  woods  in 
winter  and  the  mines  at  his  Illinois  home  in  summer.  But  he 
never  liked  coal  mining  and  later  began  to  go  to  the  harvest 
fields  for  his  summer  employment.  Sometimes  he  worked  on 
railroad  construction  or  at  other  seasonal  work.  He  has  spent 
several  winters  in  Chicago,  and  usually  (he  says)  he  has  been 
able  to  pay  his  way.  However  this  year,  1921-22,  he  has  been 
eating  some  at  the  missions. 

This  case  shows  the  steps  by  which  a  stationary 
seasonal  worker  becomes  a  migratory  worker.  It 
indicates  how  easily  and  naturally  the  migrant  may 
sink  still  lower  in  the  economic  scale  until  he  spends 
his  winters  in  Hobohemia  “feeding  at  the  missions.” 

2)  Local  changes  in  industry  dislocate  the  routine 
of  work  of  the  wage-earner.  The  timber  in  certain 
regions  gives  out,  mines  close  down  when  the  ore  is 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


63 


exhausted  or  when  prices  drop,  or  in  the  reorganiza¬ 
tion  of  an  industry  a  branch  factory  may  be  aban¬ 
doned.  Under  these  circumstances,  certain  workers 
are  compelled  to  look  elsewhere  for  employment. 
Those  who  are  free  to  move  naturally  migrate.  The 
following  case  is  that  of  a  migratory  worker  who 
with  the  passing  of  the  West  finds  it  difficult  to  make 
the  necessary  adjustment. 

12.  A.  is  the  pioneer  type  of  hobo.  He  came  to  Chicago 
because  he  was  pressed  eastward  by  the  closing  down  of  the  mines 
in  the  West.  He  is  about  fifty  years  old.  He  was  born  in  south¬ 
ern  Illinois  but  grew  restless  on  the  farm.  He  left  home  in  his 
teens  to  drive  a  team  on  the  railroad  grades.  He  moved  West 
with  the  railroad  building.  He  got  into  the  mining  game  at 
Cripple  Creek,  and  then  turned  prospector.  He  spent  a  couple 
of  years  in  the  mines  of  Alaska.  He  has  never  been  able  to 
attach  himself  to  an  old  established  camp.  He  has  worked  in 
the  mines  of  northern  Michigan  but  did  not  like  it  there.  He 
regrets  that  he  came  East.  He  says  that  he  was  never  so  hope¬ 
lessly  down  in  the  West.  He  plans  to  go  back  where  he  knows 
people  and  where  he  can  go  out  and  get  some  kind  of  a  job  when 
he  feels  like  going  to  work. 

This  man  always  carried  a  bundle  in  the  West.  He  laments 
that  he  found  it  necessary  to  throw  his  bed  away  when  he  came 
East.  He  claims  that  a  man  with  a  bed  and  a  desire  to  work  can 
get  along  better  in  the  West  than  he  has  seen  anyone  get  along 
here.  Out  there  he  only  went  to  town  four  or  five  times  a  year. 
The  rest  of  the  time  he  was  out  in  the  hills.  Out  there  he  could 
always  find  work  (until  this  recent  industrial  depression),  but 
here  he  has  not  seen  any  jobs  he  cares  for. 

3)  Seasonal  fluctuations  in  the  demand  for  labor 
accompanied  by  the  seasonal  rise  and  fall  in  wages 
have  greatly  affected  the  ebb  and  flow  of  workers. 

Industrial  fluctuations  may  be  classed  as  cyclical  and  sea¬ 
sonal.  Cyclical  fluctuations  result  from  business  depressions  and 
at  times  double  the  amount  of  loss  of  time  during  a  year,  which  is 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  the  railroads  employed  236,000  fewer 


64 


THE  HOBO 


men  in  1908  than  in  1907.  Seasonal  fluctuations  may  either  be 
inappreciable,  as  in  municipal  utilities,  or  may  displace  nearly 
the  entire  labor  force.  The  seasonal  fluctuations  in  the  canning 
industry  in  California,  for  example,  involve  nearly  nine-tenths 
of  all  the  workers;  in  logging  camps,  which  depend  upon  the 
snow,  operations  are  practically  suspended  in  summer;  while  in 
the  brick  and  tile  industry  only  36.5  per  cent  of  the  total  number 
of  employees  are  retained  during  the  dull  season.  Irregularities 
in  the  conduct  of  industry  and  in  the  method  of  employing  labor 
are  evident  in  dock  work,  in  the  unskilled  work  in  iron  and  steel, 
and  in  slaughtering  and  meat  packing;  in  the  competitive  condi¬ 
tions  in  industries  which  force  employers  to  cut  labor  cost  down 
to  the  utmost  and  to  close  down  in  order  to  save  operating 
expenses;  in  speculative  practices  which  result  in  the  piling  up 
of  orders  and  alternate  periods  of  rush  production  and  inactivity; 
in  loss  of  time  due  to  inefficient  management  within  plants.  In 
some  cases  it  has  been  charged,  although  without  definite  proof, 
that  irregularity  of  employment  is  due  to  a  deliberate  policy  of 
employers  in  order  to  lessen  the  chance  of  organized  movement, 
as  well  as  to  keep  the  level  of  wages  down  in  unskilled  occupations 
by  continually  hiring  new  individuals.1 

4)  Periods  of  unemployment  throw  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  men  out  of  work.  But  the  effects  of 
unemployment  are  not  ended  with  the  passing  of  the 
period  of  business  depression.  The  majority  of  men, 
it  is  true,  return  to  work  with  their  economic  effi¬ 
ciency  little  if  any  impaired  by  the  stress  and  strain 
of  uncertainty  and  deprivation.  But  upon  thou¬ 
sands  of  men  the  enforced  period  of  idleness  has  had 
a  disorganizing  effect.2  The  demoralizing  effect  of 
being  out  of  work  is  particularly  marked  upon  the 
unskilled  laborer.  His  regular  routine  of  work  has 
been  interrupted;  habits  of  loafing  are  easily  acquired. 

1 

1  Final  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations  (1915),  pp.  163-64. 

2  B.  Seebohm  Rountree,  Unemployment ;  A  Social  Study.  London,  1911. 
See  especially  chap,  vii,  “Detailed  Descriptions  of  Selected  Families,”  where 
the  demoralizing  effects  of  unemployment  upon  the  laborer  are  clearly  indicated. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


65 


The  path  of  personal  degradation  may  lead  to  the 
“bread  line”  at  the  mission,  and  from  there  to  pan¬ 
handling  in  the  Loop. 

An  increasingly  large  number  of  laborers  go  downward 
instead  of  upward.  Young  men,  full  of  ambition  and  high  hopes 
for  the  future  start  their  life  as  workers,  but  meeting  failure  after 
failure  in  establishing  themselves  in  some  trade  or  calling,  their 
ambitions  and  hopes  go  to  pieces,  and  they  gradually  sink  into 
the  ranks  of  migratory  and  casual  workers.  Continuing  their 
existence  in  these  ranks  they  begin  to  lose  self-respect  and  become 
“hobos.”  Afterwards,  acquiring  certain  negative  habits,  as 
those  of  drinking,  begging,  and  losing  all  self-control,  self-respect, 
and  desire  to  work,  they  become  “down-and-outs” — tramps, 
bums,  vagabonds,  gamblers,  pickpockets,  yeggmen,  and  other 
petty  criminals — in  short,  public  parasites,  the  number  of  whom 
seems  to  be  growing  faster  than  the  general  population.1 

THE  INDUSTRIALLY  INADEQUATE 

Every  year  thousands  of  men  fail  in  the  struggle 
for  existence.  For  one  reason  or  another,  they  can¬ 
not,  or  at  least  they  do  not,  keep  the  pace  set  by 
modern  large-scale  industry.  These  men  are  “mis¬ 
fits,”  industrially  inadequate. 

The  majority  of  individuals,  commonly  regarded 
as  industrially  inadequate,  are  probably  feeble¬ 
minded  or  restless  types  like  the  emotionally  unstable 
and  the  egocentric  and  fall  into  the  group  of  defective 
personalities  to  be  considered  later.  Other  causes  of 
industrial  incompetency  are  (i)  physical  handicaps 
due  to  accidents,  sickness,  or  occupational  diseases; 
(2)  alcoholism  and  drug  addiction;  and  (3)  old  age. 

1)  The  workers  in  certain  industries  are  exposed 
to  dangerous  dusts  and  gases.  The  printers  have 
learned  the  risks  of  their  trade  and  endeavor  to  cope 
with  them.  Other  industries  have  taken  steps  to 

1  Final  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations  (1915),  p.  157. 


66 


THE  HOBO 


eliminate  industrial  hazards.  Many  transients  are 
miners  who  go  from  one  job  to  another  exposing 
themselves  to  different  dangers. 

13.  O.  O.  is  fifty-three  years  old  and  he  has  been  a  migrant 
for  many  years.  He  has  been  a  lumber-jack  and  a  harvest  hand. 
He  has  tried  his  hand  at  various  casual  jobs  but  most  of  his  time 
has  been  spent  in  the  mines.  He  used  to  work  in  the  most 
dangerous  mines  because  they  generally  pay  the  most  money. 
Three  years  ago  (about  1919)  while  working  in  the  copper  mines 
in  Butte,  Montana,  he  contracted  miner’s  “con,”  which  is  some 
sort  of  lung  trouble.  He  had  no  place  to  go,  could  not  hold  a 
job,  and  has  wandered  about  the  country  ever  since.  He  has  no 
hope  of  regaining  his  health  and  is  too  proud  to  return  to  his 
people  who  live  in  Ohio. 

Other  industries  also  have  their  victims. 

14.  G.  T.  came  from  the  New  England  states.  He  was 
wandering  about  the  country  in  hope  of  regaining  his  health. 
He  was  a  textile  worker  and  claims  that  the  dyes  and  dust  were 
the  cause  of  his  condition.  There  was  no  means  at  hand  of  prov¬ 
ing  his  story  but  the  fact  that  he  was  in  ill  health,  very  much 
underweight,  and  he  was  not  able  to  do  heavy  work.  Numerous 
times  he  was  rebuked  because  he  asked  for  light  work. 

Many  men  in  Hobohemia  have  limbs  or  parts  of 
limbs  missing,  or  bent  and  twisted  bodies.  These 
are  victims  of  industrial  or  non-industrial  accidents. 

15.  Red  begs  and  sometimes  peddles  pencils  along  Halsted 
Street.  He  lost  his  leg  several  years  ago  while  working  in  the 
coal  mines.  In  his  sober  moments  he  claims  that  his  own  care¬ 
lessness  was  partly  to  blame  for  his  loss,  but  he  also  holds  that 
the  company  was  negligent.  His  leg  at  first  had  only  been 
bruised  and  he  went  back  to  work  in  a  damp,  cold  place,  and 
inflammation  set  in.  He  has  since  become  accommodated  to  a 
life  of  begging  and  peddling. 

2)  Alcoholism  decreases  the  economic  efficiency 
of  the  worker  and  so  tends  to  depress  him  into  the 
group  of  homeless  men.  Before  prohibition  the 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


67 


saloon  had  no  better  patron  than  the  homeless  man. 
In  Chicago  today  bootleggers  and  blind  pigs  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  “stem”  thrive  upon  the  homeless 
man’s  love  for  liquor. 

1 6.  E.  J.  loafs  on  West  Madison  Street  and  South  State 
Street.  He  drinks  and  does  not  care  who  knows  it.  He  has 
been  a  drinking  man  for  years.  “Booze  put  me  on  the  bum. 
Now,  I’m  here  and  I’m  too  old  to  be  good  for  anything,  so  why 
not  keep  it  up  ?  You’re  goin’ t’  die  when  your  time  comes  any¬ 
way;  so  why  not  keep  it  up  ?”  His  philosophy  helps  him  to 
live  and  he  lives  as  well  as  he  can  by  begging  a  little,  working  when 
any  jobs  come  his  way.  He  used  to  be  a  carpenter  but  has  lost 
his  efficiency  at  that  trade.  He  threw  up  his  membership  in 
the  union  several  years  ago. 

Drinking  is  responsible  for  keeping  many  men  on 
the  road.  One  man  said  that  he  left  home  because 
he  had  too  many  drinking  friends.  He  has  been  on 
the  road  for  several  years  but  wherever  he  goes  he 
finds  other  drinking  friends.  An  old  man  refuses  to 
live  with  his  children  in  the  country  because  he  can¬ 
not  get  his  “morning’s  morning”  while  with  them. 
They  have  written  him  time  and  again  but  he  does 
not  answer. 

Drug  addiction  likewise  decreases  the  industrial 
efficiency  of  its  victims.  Drug  addicts  among  home¬ 
less  men  seldom  are  transient.  Those  who  are 
transient  are  often  cocaine  users  who  are  able  to 
do  without  the  drug  for  considerable  periods  of  time. 
Not  infrequently  “coke  heads”  or  “snow-birds”  are 
found  among  the  hobo  workers.  When  on  out-of- 
town  jobs,  they  are  prone  to  go  to  town  occasionally 
to  indulge  in  a  cocaine  spree  much  as  a  “booze- 
hoister”  indulges  in  a  liquor  spree.  When  their 
money  is  gone  they  return  to  work  and  do  not  touch 
the  “snow  ”  for  weeks  or  months.  Users  of  heroin  or 


68 


THE  HOBO 


morphine  are  not  able  to  separate  themselves  from 
the  source  of  supply  for  so  long  a  time. 

Because  of  the  secret  nature  of  the  practice,  the 
extent  of  drug  addiction  among  homeless  men  is 
unknown.  Men  who  use  drugs  are  loath  to  disclose 
the  fact  to  anyone  but  drug  users.  The  drug  addict 
employs  every  scheme  to  keep  his  practice  a  secret 
whereas  the  drinking  man  strives  to  share  his  joy 
with  others.  The  fear  of  being  discovered  drives 
many  addicts  from  the  circle  of  their  family  and 
friends  and  many  of  them  drift  into  the  homeless 
man  areas  where  they  enjoy  the  maximum  seclusion. 

17.  The  investigator  was  accosted  by  a  beggar  in  the  Loop. 
He  was  impressed  by  the  fervor  and  the  hurry  with  which  the 
man  begged  him  and  was  away.  He  followed  the  man  for  several 
blocks  and  watched  him  accost  more  than  a  hundred  persons, 
all  men.  The  only  men  from  whom  he  failed  to  solicit  were 
those  accompanied  by  women.  If  two  men  were  standing  two 
or  three  yards  apart  he  accosted  each  one  individually.  Only 
one  or  two  men  gave  him  anything.  Most  of  them  looked  with 
suspicion  at  him,  and  not  without  reason,  for  although  he  was 
fairly  well  dressed  he  was  very  dirty  and  his  clothes  looked  as  if 
he  had  been  sleeping  out.  He  had  a  pallid,  leaden  complexion, 
and  he  had  a  ten  days’  growth  of  beard.  He  had  a  wild,  hunted 
expression  and  impressed  the  investigator  as  being  a  drug  addict. 
He  continued  to  follow  the  man  and  engaged  him  in  conversation. 
He  learned  that  he  had  just  beat  his  way  from  Boston.  He  had 
ridden  passenger  trains  all  the  way  and  had  come  in  less  than 
three  days.  His  only  difficulty  was  in  Buffalo  where  he  says  that 
a  policeman  pulled  him  off  the  train  and  beat  him.  Why  he 
left  Boston  he  would  not  say.  He  denied  being  a  “dope”  then 
and  it  was  not  till  three  days  later  when  he  was  seen  in  Grant 
Park  that  he  admitted  the  fact.  He  came  to  Chicago  because 
he  knew  more  people  here  and  was  certain  of  getting  morphine. 

Drug  users  need  as  much  as  three  or  four  dollars 
a  day,  and  even  more,  to  supply  their  wants.  As  a 
rule  they  are  physically  unfit  to  earn  a  living.  They 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


69 


cannot  live  as  the  hobos  do  because  the  average  hobo 
does  not  have  money  enough  to  buy  drugs.  They 
may  be  forced  to  live  in  cheap  hotels  and  to  eat  in 
cheap  restaurants  but  only  to  save  money  to  satisfy 
the  craving  for  “dope.”  Drug  addicts  wander  very 
little  except  to  make  rapid  trips  from  city  to  city. 
The  drug  addict  tends  to  become  a  criminal  rather 
than  a  migratory  worker.  Their  natural  habitat  is 
the  great  city. 

3)  Many  old  men  in  the  tramp  class  are  not  able  to 
work  and  are  too  independent  to  go  to  the  almshouse. 
Some  of  them  have  spent  their  lives  on  the  road. 
These  old,  homeless  men  usually  find  their  way  to  the 
larger  cities.  Unlike  the  younger  men  they  have  no 
dreams  and  no  longer  burn  with  the  desire  to  travel. 
Many  have  been  self-supporting  until  they  were  over¬ 
taken  by  senility.  It  is  pitiable  to  see  an  old  man 
tottering  along  the  streets  living  a  hand-to-mouth 
existence. 

18.  J.  is  an  old  man  who  lives  in  a  cheap  hotel  on  South 
Desplaines  Street,  where  a  few  cents  a  day  will  house  him.  He  is 
seventy-two,  very  bent  and  gray.  Once  he  was  picked  up  on 
the  street  in  winter  and  sent  to  the  hospital  where  he  remained  a 
day  or  two  and  was  transferred  to  the  poor  house  at  Oak  Forest. 
He  ran  away  from  the  poor  house  two  years  ago  and  has  managed 
to  live.  He  seldom  gets  more  than  a  block  or  two  from  his  lodg¬ 
ing.  Even  today  (1923)  he  may  be  seen  on  a  cold  day  shivering 
without  an  overcoat  on  Madison  Street.  He  is  a  good  beggar 
and  manages  to  get  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  a  day  from  the 
“boys”  on  the  “stem.”  Sometimes  during  the  warm  weather 
he  makes  excursions  of  three  to  five  blocks  away  on  begging  tours. 
He  is  exceedingly  feeble  and  walking  that  distance  is  hard  work 
for  him.  Work  is  out  of  the  question.  There  are  very  few 
jobs  that  he  could  manage. 

This  case  is  typical.  During  the  summer  time, 
when  it  is  possible  to  sit  outdoors  in  comfort,  num- 


70 


THE  HOBO 


bers  of  old  men  may  be  found  in  groups  on  the  pave¬ 
ments  or  in  the  parks.  In  winter  they  are  too  much 
occupied  seeking  food  and  shelter. 

The  physically  handicapped  and  industrially  ineffi¬ 
cient  individuals  are  numerous  among  the  homeless 
men.  The  handicap  is,  in  part  at  least,  the  reason 
of  their  presence  in  that  class.  Competition  with 
able-bodied  workers  forces  them  into  the  scrap  heap. 

DEFECTS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Psychological  and  sociological  studies  of  vaga¬ 
bondage  in  France,  Italy,  and  Germany  have  led  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  vagabond  is  primarily  a  psy¬ 
chopathic  type.1  The  findings  of  European  psycho¬ 
pathologists  are,  of  course,  the  result  of  case-studies 
of  beggars  and  wanderers  in  these  countries  and  can¬ 
not  without  reservation  be  accepted  for  the  United 
States.  Undoubtedly  there  are  large  numbers  of 
individuals  with  defects  of  personalities  among 
American  hobos  and  tramps,  but  there  are  also  large 
numbers  of  normal  individuals.  The  American  tradi¬ 
tion  of  pioneering,  wanderlust,  seasonal  employ¬ 
ment,  attract  into  the  group  of  wanderers  and 
migratory  workers  a  great  many  energetic  and 
venturesome  normal  boys  and  young  men. 

William  Healy,  for  several  years  director  of  the 
Psychopathic  Institute  of  Chicago,  sums  up  the  rela¬ 
tion  of  mental  deficiency  to  vagabondage  in  these 
words : 

We  have  seen  vagabondage  in  connection  with  feeble¬ 
mindedness,  epilepsy,  dementia  precox,  but  we  have  also  seen  the 
same  behavior  in  normal  boys  who  had  conceived  a  grudge,  with 
or  without  good  reasons,  against  home  conditions.  Again,  we 

1  See  Bibliography,  p.  287. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


71 


have  seen  normal  lads  who  have  been  seeking  larger  experiences 
in  this  way.1 

Dr.  Healy’s  observations  were  made  primarily 
with  juveniles,  but  he  adds  cautiously  a  conclusion 
as  to  the  explanation  of  adult  vagabondage: 

When  vagabondage  is  continued  beyond  the  unstable  years 
of  adolescence,  generalizations  on  the  character  of  the  individuals 
are  more  likely  to  be  correct.  But  even  here  the  only  chance  of 
adequate  conception  of  the  relationship  between  the  behavior 
and  the  type  of  individual  who  engages  in  it  is  to  be  found  in  a 
personal  study  of  him. 

The  proportion  of  feeble-minded  is  popularly  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  higher  among  the  migratory  and  casual 
laborer  than  in  the  general  population.  In  the 
earlier  studies,  only  the  most  obvious  cases  of  mental 
defect  were  noted.  Mrs.  Solenberger  by  common- 
sense  observation  or  medical  examinations  found  only 
eighty-nine  of  the  one  thousand  men  she  examined  to 
be  feeble-minded,  epileptic,  or  insane.2 

In  recent  years  mental  tests  have  been  given  to 
small  groups  of  unemployed  men,  in  which  the  types 
of  the  hobo,  tramp,  and  bum  were  well  represented. 
Knollin  found  20  per  cent  of  the  150  hobos  he  tested 
feeble-minded.3  Pintner  and  Toops  examined  two 
groups  of  applicants  at  Ohio  free  employment  agencies 
by  standardized  tests  other  than  the  Stanford  revi¬ 
sion  of  the  Binet-Simon.  Of  the  94  men  taking  the 
tests  at  Columbus,  28.7  per  cent  were  diagnosed  as 
feeble-minded.  Of  the  40  unemployed  men  examined 
at  Dayton  7.5  per  cent  were  assigned  to  the  feeble- 

1  The  Individual  Delinquent,  pp.  776-79. 

2  One  Thousand  Homeless  Men ,  pp.  88-89. 

3  L.  M.  Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  p.  18. 


72 


THE  HOBO 


minded  class.1  Glenn  R.  Johnson  gave  the  Stan¬ 
ford  revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  tests  to  107  men 
out  of  work  in  Portland,  and  found  18  per  cent 
feeble-minded,  i.e.,  under  twelve  years  mental  age.2 
As  he  had  expected,  he  found  the  proportion  of  infe¬ 
rior  intelligence  lower  than  that  of  the  62  business 
men  and  high-school  students  upon  which  Terman 
had  standardized  his  tests  for  adults,  but  he  also 
found  among  hobos  a  higher  percentage  of  superior 
adults.  He  found  also  that  the  higher  the  intelli¬ 
gence  of  the  individual  the  shorter  the  period  of 
holding  a  job  among  the  unemployed.  The  testing 
of  an  unselected  group  of  653  men  in  the  army  by 
the  Stanford  revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  tests  affords 
an  interesting  opportunity  for  a  comparison  with  the 
results  of  the  Portland  study. 

This  comparison  would  indicate  that  the  intelli¬ 
gence  of  the  unemployed  is  not  lower,  but,  if  any¬ 
thing,  higher  than  that  of  the  adult  males  tested  in 
army  camps.  Apparently  other  factors  than  intelli¬ 
gence  are  decisive  in  determining  whether  an  indi¬ 
vidual  is  employable  or  unemployable,  or  whether 
he  makes  or  fails  to  make  an  adequate  adjustment  in 
the  normal  routine  of  industrial  organization. 

The  defects  in  personality  commonly  found  in  the 
cases  of  homeless  men  studied  in  Chicago  are  those 
noted  by  the  students  of  vagabondage  and  unem¬ 
ployment,  namely,  feeble-mindedness,  constitutional 
inferiority,  emotional  instability,  and  egocentricity. 
In  a  survey  of  100  cases  of  unemployment  which  had 

1  Rudolph  Pintner  and  H.  A.  Toops,  “Mental  Tests  of  Unemployed  Men,” 
Journal  of  Applied  Psychology,  I  (1917),  325-41;  II  (1918),  15-25. 

2  “Unemployment  and  Feeble-mindedness,”  Journal  of  Delinquency ,  II 
(i9i7)j  59-73- 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


73 


been  received  as  patients  in  the  Boston  Psychopathic 
Hospital,  Dr.  Herman  M.  Adler  found  that  43  fell 
into  the  class  o i  paranoid  personality  (egocen tricity). 
The  next  largest  group  of  35  cases  was  assigned  to 
the  class  of  inadequate  personality  (mentally  defective 


Mental  Capacity  of  Army  Group  and  of  Port¬ 
land  Unemployed  as  Measured  by 
Stanford-Binet 


Mental  Age 

Army  Group 

Portland 

Unemployed 

653  Cases 

105  Cases 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

c . 

0.2 

6 . 

0.2 

7 . 

0.2 

1  -9 

8 . 

3-4 

1  -9 

9 . 

9-5 

3-8 

10 . 

10. 1 

6.7 

11 . 

10.6 

5-7 

12 . 

12.4 

8.6 

*3 . 

10.6 

16.2 

14 . 

11. 8 

18. 1 

15 . 

9.6 

11 .4 

16 . 

8-3 

9-5 

17 . . 

7.2 

7.6 

18 . 

5-* 

7.6 

19 . 

0.8 

2.9 

or  feeble-minded).  The  remaining  cases,  22  in  num¬ 
ber,  were  diagnosed  as  emotionally  unstable  person¬ 
ality .  An  analysis  of  the  months  employed  per  case 
showed  that  the  emotionally  unstable  group  aver- 
ages  50  months  to  each  job;  the  inadequate  group 
24.7  months  to  each  job;  and  the  paranoid  group 
20.6  months  to  each  job.1 

Many  individuals  not  feeble-minded  find  their 
way  into  the  group  of  casual  and  migratory  workers 

1  Herman  M.  Adler,  “Unemployment  and  Personality — A  Study  of  Psy¬ 
chopathic  Cases,”  Mental  Hygiene,  I  (January,  1917),  16-24. 


74 


THE  HOBO 


by  reason  of  other  defects  of  personality,  for  example, 
emotional  instability  and  egocentricity.  Among 
transient  laborers  the  very  great  turnover  cannot  be 
entirely  accounted  for  by  industrial  conditions. 
Much  of  their  shifting  from  scene  to  scene  is  indica¬ 
tive  of  their  emotional  instability  and  restlessness. 

19.  W.  E.  was  born  in  a  little  village  in  Kentucky.  His  first 
job  away  from  home  was  on  the  section.  When  he  learned  that 
it  was  the  meanest  job  on  the  railroad  he  decided  to  change.  He 
got  a  job  on  an  extra-gang  where  he  moved  about  considerably, 
worked  in  several  towns  during  the  summer.  Later  got  a  steady 
job  on  a  farm  but  he  soon  tired  of  “eating  at  the  same  table  day 
after  day”  and  he  went  to  Kansas  City  where  he  worked  in  a 
box  factory.  He  became  expert  at  it  but  soon  tired  of  using 
the  same  tools,  and  working  as  fast  as  possible  day  after  day,  and 
he  changed.  He  worked  in  several  factories  making  boxes  but 
there  was  no  difference.  Then  with  his  meager  experience  with 
tools  he  got  in  the  maintenance  of  way  work  of  a  railroad.  Here 
he  had  some  variety  and  remained  a  year.  Decided  he  wanted 
to  work  in  the  mines  and  he  got  a  job  timbering.  Later  he  tried 
his  hand  at  millwright  work  but  he  soon  quit  that  and  went 
back  to  the  bridge  gang.  He  still  goes  to  town  every  month  or 
two  to  spend  his  money  and  each  time  he  goes  out  to  some 
different  job. 

In  hard  times  when  work  is  scarce  and  wages  are 
low,  voluntary  quitting  of  jobs  is  much  less  than  in 
good  times.  Hobos  are  easily  piqued  and  they  will 
“walk  off”  the  job  on  the  slightest  pretext,  even  when 
they  have  the  best  jobs  and  living  conditions  are 
relatively  good.  Hobo  philosophy  is  disposed  to 
represent  the  man  who  is  a  long  time  on  the  job  as  a 
piker.  He  ought  to  leave  a  job  once  in  a  while  simply 
to  assert  his  independence  and  to  learn  something 
else  about  other  jobs.  The  following  case  shows  the 
relation  of  instability  and  egocentricity  to  labor 
turnover: 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


75 


20.  Yes,  Pete  had  had  plenty  of  good  jobs,  but  something  had 
always  gone  against  him.  At  one  place  not  long  ago  they  wanted 
him  to  continue  work  in  spite  of  the  dust  which  was  blowing 
everywhere.  Another  rude  employer  never  spoke  to  him  (or  any 
other  of  the  employees)  politely. 

No  one  should  work  for  a  man  like  that.  Upon  another 
occasion  the  boss  suggested  reform  of  a  certain  habit — as  if  he 
had  any  right  to  tell  an  American  citizen  what  he  ought  to  do. 

He  had  worked  at  almost  everything,  but  it  went  against 
his  very  nature  to  do  one  thing  very  long.  He  would,  in  two  or 
three  weeks,  quit  and  look  for  a  different  occupation.  Why  he 
quit,  I  am  sure  he  didn’t  know.  “Independence,”  “Justice,” 
and  “American  Equality”  furnished  the  material  for  his  excuses, 
but  they  were  only  excuses. 

A  survey  of  the  so-called  “intellectuals  ”  of  Hobo- 
hemia  reveals  a  group  of  egocentric  and  rebellious 
natures  who  decry  most  things  that  are.  Intellec¬ 
tuals,  just  because  they  are  highly  organized  and 
specialized,  are  very  likely  to  become  misfits  outside 
of  the  environment  to  which  they  artificially  are 
adapted.  When,  added  to  this  handicap,  they  lack 
the  discipline  which  a  regular  occupation  affords  they 
are  likely  to  become  quite  impossible. 

21.  H.  has  a  great  chart  that  he  uses  to  preach  evolution  to 
the  curb-stone  audiences.  He  has  learned  a  few  scientific  terms 
from  one  or  two  books  he  has  read.  He  has  no  use  for  the  modern 
scientists.  He  considers  them  heretic.  He  is  a  student  of  Dar¬ 
win  “and  those  old  timers.”  When  pinned  down  he  is  not  able 
to  discuss  clearly  what  contributions  the  old-timers  made  or 
what  they  believed. 

22.  D.  H.  is  a  student  of  economics  according  to  Karl  Marx. 
He  has  no  room  in  his  thinking  for  any  contribution  of  any  other 
man.  Indeed,  he  does  not  think  that  anyone  has  made  any 
contribution  since  Marx.  One  of  his  stock  phrases  is  “Now  get 
this  into  your  heads.  I  am  making  it  simple  so  that  you  can 
understand  it.” 

23.  B.  is  writing  a  novel.  He  has  been  working  on  it  for 
several  years.  He  also  writes  songs,  popular  songs.  But  he  has 


76 


THE  HOBO 


never  sold  a  song  nor  has  he  ever  been  able  to  interest  a  publisher 
in  his  novel.  He  calls  the  publishers  a  lot  of  grafters  and  claims 
that  they  are  in  league  to  keep  the  poor  writers  down. 

24.  L.  is  a  soap-box  orator.  He  has  one  hobby.  He  is  a 
single-taxer.  He  is  a  great  believer  in  Lincoln,  Washington, 
Jefferson.  To  him  there  is  only  one  problem,  to  find  out  who  is 
exploiting  the  people,  and  there  is  only  one  remedy  and  that  the 
single  tax.  He  will  entertain  no  argument  against  the  single  tax. 
Anyone  who  does  not  share  his  opinion  is  to  be  pitied. 

The  intellectuals  are  frequently  egocentric.  They 
are  obsessed  by  some  peculiar  point  of  view.  As 
egocentrics  they  are  in  conflict  with  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Their  cry  is  often  a  lament  and  just  as  often 
a  justification  or  defense. 

A  study  of  individual  cases  seems  to  indicate  that 
there  is  a  large  proportion  of  inadequate  personalities 
among  homeless  men.  The  following  cases  indicate 
the  variety  of  ways  in  which  personal  defects  lead 
to  a  migratory  existence  which  lands  them  eventu¬ 
ally  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  scale. 

25.  D.  is  a  man  who  could  not  get  along  at  home.  He  was 
continually  into  difficulty  with  his  father.  He  always  had  ideas 
and  schemes  that  his  father  thought  foolish  and  he  was  never 
permitted  to  carry  any  of  them  out.  He  still  has  the  habit  of 
working  up  schemes  and  programs.  One  week  he  will  be  writing 
a  play.  Again  he  will  be  inventing  some  mechanical  device.  He 
has  tried  several  different  courses  in  mechanical  engineering  but 
has  not  completed  any  of  them. 

26.  F.  has  an  idea  that  he  can  become  a  singer  but  he  refuses 
to  spend  his  time  in  the  rigid  and  arduous  training  that  would  be 
required.  He  buys  cheap  books  on  voice  culture.  When  he  gets 
money  enough  ahead  to  take  lessons  he  forgets  his  musical  ambi¬ 
tion  and  drinks  or  gambles. 

27.  L.  was  the  “simple  Simon”  in  his  home  town.  During  the 
war  he  was  rejected  for  military  service  so  he  decided  to  go  to 
the  city  to  work.  Here  he  earned  fair  money,  more  than  at  home. 
The  people  at  home  used  to  tease  him  but  at  first  he  got  by  fairly 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


77 


well  in  Minneapolis.  Later  he  went  to  Detroit  because  the 
fellows  where  he  worked  in  Minneapolis  used  “to  run  him.” 
They  used  to  tease  him  in  Detroit  and  he  left  two  jobs  there  on 
that  account.  He  is  the  type  of  person  that  invites  teasing.  He 
puts  himself  in  the  way  of  it  but  resents  it  if  it  reaches  a  certain 
extent.  With  the  slack  season  in  industry  in  1921-22  he  had  a 
hard  time  to  get  along  but  he  would  not  return  home. 

28.  H.  is  a  man  who  thinks  that  he  is  getting  the  worst  of 
every  deal  he  has  with  others.  He  says  that  at  home  he  was 
imposed  on  by  his  people  so  he  left.  He  is  always  on  the  lookout 
for  plots  directed  against  him.  If  he  is  working  along  with  others 
on  a  job  and  a  bad  piece  of  work  falls  his  way  he  concludes  that 
it  happened  purposely.  However,  he  is  ready  to  gloat  over 
favors.  His  best  efforts  are  made  to  ingratiate  himself  with 
others.  Whenever  he  leaves  a  place,  he  does  so  with  bitterness 
in  his  heart.  He  usually  keeps  his  grudge  to  himself. 

29.  M.  is  a  good  worker  but  a  transient.  He  behaves  well 
when  sober  but  he  becomes  quarrelsome  when  drunk.  If  he  is 
not  discharged  because  of  a  drunken  scene  he  usually  quits  volun¬ 
tarily  because  he  feels  ashamed  of  himself.  He  argues  a  great 
deal  when  sober  but  he  has  the  ability  to  control  himself.  His 
periods  of  drunkenness  last  from  a  week  to  ten  days  and  are 
staged  whenever  his  finances  will  permit.  Not  infrequently  he  is 
arrested  while  drunk. 

CRISES  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  PERSON 

Crises  in  the  life  of  the  person,  as  family  conflict, 
for  example,  the  feeling  of  failure,  disgrace  or  embar¬ 
rassment,  the  fear  of  punishment  for  the  commission 
of  an  offense  may  cause  a  man  to  desert  home  and 
community.  With  the  severance  of  family  and  social 
ties  the  man  or  boy  is  all  the  more  likely  to  drift 
aimlessly  from  place  to  place,  and  at  last  perhaps 
find  himself  permanently  in  the  group  of  migratory 
and  casual  laborers. 

Conflict  at  home  forces  many  men  and  boys  into 
the  group  of  homeless  men.  Not  infrequently  boys 
run  away  from  home  because  of  difficulties  with  their 


78 


THE  HOBO 


people.  One  youth  says  that  his  father  tried  to  tell 
him  “where  to  head  in  at,”  and  he  “wouldn’t  stand 
for  it.”  Another  boy  could  not  get  along  with  his 
brothers  who  were  older  than  he.  They  tried  to 
“boss”  him. 

Many  men  in  Hobohemia  manifest  no  inclination 
to  wander  but  are  as  completely  cut  off  from  their 
home  associations  as  are  the  migrants.  These  men 
of  the  “home  guard”  types  may  have  had  trouble 
with  their  parents  or  with  their  wives. 

30.  H.  claims  that  he  was  married  and  that  he  held  a  job  as 
traveling  salesman.  He  maintained  an  apartment  on  the  South 
Side  where  he  left  his  wife  while  he  was  away  on  trips  through  the 
Southwest.  His  story  is  that  his  wife  was  untrue  to  him  and  he 
divorced  her.  This  experience  “broke  him  up”  so  that  he  quit 
his  job  and  went  West  where  he  remained  a  year.  Today  he 
loafs  on  West  Madison  Street  and  blames  his  wife  for  his  failure 
in  life.  The  divorced  wife’s  story  learned  from  other  sources 
lays  considerable  of  the  responsibility  at  his  feet.  This  much  of 
his  story  is  true:  he  was  not  in  the  tramp  class  before  he  married. 
The  circumstances  surrounding  his  home  trouble  were  unfortu¬ 
nate  and  were  partly  due  to  the  shortcomings  of  both. 

31.  G.  lays  the  blame  for  his  condition  upon  family  trouble. 
He  has  not  lived  with  his  wife  for  nine  years.  They  are  not 
divorced  because  he  and  his  wife  are  both  Catholic  and  do  not 
believe  in  it.  He  worked  most  of  the  time  before  their  separation 
and  claims  that  he  owned  his  own  home  which  is  now  in  the  pos¬ 
session  of  his  wife.  What  his  wife  is  doing  now  he  does  not  know 
nor  does  he  know  anything  about  their  child.  He  is  content 
where  he  is;  doing  just  enough  work  to  pay  expenses. 

Deaths  in  a  family  will  sometimes  turn  a  person 
out  into  the  world  and  he  may  drift  into  the  hobo  and 
tramp  group. 

,  32.  M.’s  father  died  when  he  was  about  six  years  old.  Five 
years  later  his  mother  died.  Kindly  neighbors  took  him  in 
charge  by  turns.  It  seemed  to  him  that  wherever  he  was  the 
people  would  parade  the  fact  that  they  were  taking  “care  of” 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


79 


someone  else’s  child.  It  was  charity.  He  stayed  with  several 
different  families.  Some  of  them  he  liked  and  others  he  didn’t. 
Some  sent  him  to  school  and  others  didn’t  seem  to  care  what 
became  of  him.  More  than  one  family  tried  to  pass  him  on  to 
others  on  the  ground  that  it  was  too  much  of  an  expense.  When 
he  began  to  be  old  enough  to  work  then  they  all  wanted  him. 
He  hated  it  all  so  he  left  the  country.  He  came  through  Chicago 
on  his  way  to  Texas.  (A  sixteen-year-old  boy  and  small  for  his 
age.)  He  said  he  had  a  brother  in  the  cavalry  who  was  stationed 
in  Texas.  The  brother  tried  to  persuade  him  to  wait  till  he  had 
saved  enough  money  to  pay  his  fare  but  he  preferred  to  take  his 
“chances,”  so  he  was  “beating  his  way.” 

Embarrassing  situations  often  make  it  easier  to 
leave  home  than  to  remain  and  face  the  criticism  or 
sympathy  of  the  public.  On  the  road,  a  man  is  more 
or  less  immune  to  attacks  upon  his  self-consciousness 
and  self-respect,  for  his  relations  to  other  persons  are 
loose  and  transient  and  he  has  no  status  to  maintain. 
The  opposite  is  true  in  his  home  town  where  his  every 
act  is  known. 

33.  One  man  who  works  in  and  near  Chicago  claims  that  he 
was  put  on  the  “bum”  by  a  woman.  He  was  to  have  been  married 
to  this  girl  and  prepared  for  the  wedding  in  good  faith.  A  few 
days  before  the  ceremony  she  ran  away  with  another  man.  He 
was  laughed  at  by  his  friends  and  rather  than  remain  and  for  a 
long  time  be  the  butt  of  the  joke,  he  packed  his  things  and  has 
not  been  back  since.  His  home  is  in  a  country  town  in  southern 
Illinois,  and  although  he  has  been  near  the  place  several  times 
during  the  past  ten  years  he  has  never  returned. 

34.  F.  is  another  case  of  injured  pride.  For  some  boyish 
prank  he  had  been  sent  to  the  reformatory  for  three  years.  Upon 
his  release  he  was  given  transportation  home  and  started  in  high 
glee.  His  people  met  him  at  the  station  and  took  him  home. 
Although  he  was  treated  well  he  felt  uncomfortable.  “They 
treated  me  good  because  I  happened  to  be  a  part  of  the  family. 
I  felt  like  I  didn’t  belong  there,  so  as  soon  as  it  got  dark  I  skinned 
out.  They  write  to  me  to  come  back  and  maybe  I  will  after  a 
while.”  He  is  an  average  man  of  the  migratory  worker  type. 


80 


THE  HOBO 


He  comes  to  Chicago  when  he  has  money  and  when  he  is  “  broke” 
he  goes  out  on  some  job  and  is  not  seen  for  two  or  three  months 
or  until  he  has  another  stake.  He  gets  arrested  now  and  then 
but  only  on  petty  offenses  that  he  commits  while  drunk. 

The  following  case  shows  that  a  sense  of  failure 
and  fear  of  ridicule  may  force  a  boy  to  leave  his  home 
community: 

35.  This  lad  was  working  in  a  grocery  store  at  the  age  of 
twelve.  He  became  dissatisfied  with  the  job  and  asked  for  a  raise 
which  was  denied.  He  was  somewhat  embarrassed  at  being  set 
back  and  lest  he  be  laughed  at  for  staying  on  after  making  a 
demand  he  quit.  Someone  asked  him  what  he  would  do  since 
there  was  no  other  job  to  be  had.  This  was  really  another 
challenge  and  he  met  it  with  the  reply  that  Podunk  was  not  the 
only  place  to  work.  He  left  home  to  make  his  bluff  good. 

He  met  with  many  reverses.  He  was  small  and  no  one 
wanted  to  hire  him.  So  he  begged  and  he  “managed.”  Some¬ 
times  he  did  odd  jobs,  but  he  didn’t  go  home.  Other  people  had 
left  home  and  come  back  beaten  and  had  to  take  the  “horse 
laugh”  and  he  did  not  admire  any  of  them.  He  couldn’t  think 
of  going  back  unless  he  had  more  money  than  when  he  left  and 
better  clothes,  so  he  went  on.  He  learned  to  like  the  road  and 
he  traveled  over  the  country  for  about  two  years  before  he  went 
back.  When  he  did  return  he  was  in  a  position  to  talk.  He  had 
some  money  to  spend,  he  had  seen  the  country.  He  had  been 
East  and  West,  and  he  had  been  to  sea.  He  had  something  to 
talk  about.  But  he  only  remained  in  his  home  town  long  enough 
to  stir  up  admiration  and  envy  and  he  was  off  again.  He  is  still 
under  twenty-one  and  is  still  traveling  in  response  to  the  same 
urge. 

Other  individuals  began  their  migratory  career  by 
fleeing  from  the  consequences  of  some  offense.  If 
the  offense  is  of  such  gravity  that  the  consequences 
seem  to  outweigh  the  advantages  of  remaining  in 
the  community,  then  flight  is  the  natural  course. 

36.  A.  states  that  he  left  home  to  avoid  the  wrath  of  his 
father.  He  had  been  to  town  with  the  horse  and  buggy.  On  the 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


81 


way  home  the  horse  became  excited,  left  the  road,  ran  into  a 
post,  and  broke  the  buggy.  His  father  was  absent  for  the  day 
and  he  and  his  brothers  tried  to  repair  the  buggy  so  that  the 
parent  would  not  suspect.  It  could  not  be  fixed  and  they  all 
knew  what  the  consequences  would  be.  The  brothers  helped  him 
pack  up  and  he  ran  away.  He  did  not  return  for  three  years; 
then  it  was  only  to  remain  for  a  short  time. 

37.  Red  left  home  because  he  feared  the  consequences  of  an 
affair  with  a  woman.  He  claims  that  the  woman  had  relations 
with  another  man  and  that  he  was  not  sure  that  the  child  would 
be  his.  The  other  man  was  a  Mexican  and  Red  says  that  he  has 
heard  since  that  the  child  is  a  dark-skinned  little  fellow  and  that 
eases  his  conscience. 

38.  O.  could  not  get  along  with  his  wife.  They  were  divorced 
and  he  was  ordered  by  the  court  to  pay  her  thirty  dollars  a 
month.  He  paid  it  faithfully  for  a  couple  of  months  and  then 
failed  for  a  month  or  two.  She  had  him  arrested  and  he  agreed 
to  make  good.  As  soon  as  he  was  released,  he  fled  the  country. 
He  has  been  living  in  and  about  Chicago  the  past  year.  It  has 
been  two  or  three  years  since  he  left  home.  He  has  not  com¬ 
municated  with  his  home  because  he  fears  arrest.  His  alimony 
bill  has  mounted  to  terrifying  proportions.  He  hopes  that  his 
wife  is  married  again. 

RACIAL  AND  NATIONAL  DISCRIMINATION 

In  certain  situations  racial  or  national  traits  cause 
discrimination  in  employment  and  so  result  in  a 
descent  from  regular  to  casual  work.  So  far  as  selec¬ 
tion  for  employment  is  adverse  to  the  Negroes  they 
tend  to  recruit  the  ranks  of  homeless  men.  During 
the  war,  a  much  higher  proportion  of  foreign-born  of 
German  origin  was  observed  on  West  Madison  Street 
than  had  previously  been  reported.  Interviews  with 
certain  Russians  on  the  “main  stem”  in  the  spring 
of  1922  suggest  that  the  public  disapproval  of 
Bolshevism  had  reacted  unfavorably  on  the  chances 
for  employment  of  this  nationality  in  the  United 
States. 


82 


THE  HOBO 


WANDERLUST 

Wanderlust  is  a  longing  for  new  experience.  It  is 
the  yearning  to  see  new  places,  to  feel  the  thrill  of 
new  sensations,  to  encounter  new  situations,  and  to 
know  the  freedom  and  the  exhilaration  of  being  a 
stranger. 

In  its  pure  form  the  desire  for  new  experience  results  in 
motion,  change,  danger,  instability,  social  irresponsibility.  It  is 
to  be  seen  in  simple  form  in  the  prowling  and  meddling  activities 
of  the  child,  and  the  love  of  adventure  and  travel  in  the  boy  and 
man.  It  ranges  in  moral  quality  from  the  pursuit  of  game  and 
the  pursuit  of  pleasure  to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  and  the 
pursuit  of  ideals.  It  is  found  equally  in  the  vagabond  and  the 
scientific  explorer.1 

Even  those  of  us  who  seem  to  have  settled  down  quite  com¬ 
fortably  to  exacting  routine  are  sometimes  intolerably  stirred  by 
the  wanderlust.  It  comes  upon  us  unaware;  and  often  we  cut 
away  and  go.  There  are  automobiles,  railway  cars,  steamships, 
airplanes — serving  little  other  purpose,  really,  than  the  gratifica¬ 
tion  of  wander  tendencies.  Usually  we  do  not  say  it  so  openly  of 
course;  we  make  good  reasons  for  travelling,  for  not  “staying 
put.”  Many  a  business  man  has  developed  a  perfect  technique 
for  escaping  from  his  rut;  many  a  laborer  has  invented  a  phys¬ 
ical  inability  to  work  steadily  that  lets  him  out  into  the  drifting 
current  when  monotony  sets  in  on  the  job.  Life  is  full  of  these 
moral  side  doors;  but  we  need  not  view  man’s  rationalizing  power 
cynically,  merely  understandingly.  The  escapes  he  contrives 
are  a  damaging  critique  of  the  modern  mode  of  life.  We  may 
infer  from  them  the  superior  adjustments  we  strive  so  blindly 
toward.2 

Wanderlust  is  a  wish  of  the  person.  Its  expres¬ 
sion  in  the  form  of  tramping,  “making”  the  harvest 
field,  roughing  it,  pioneering,  is  a  social  pattern  of 
American  life.  The  fascination  of  the  life  of  the 
road  is,  in  part,  disclosed  in  the  following  case-study. 

1  R.  E.  Park  and  H.  A.  Miller,  Old  World  Traits  Transplanted,  p.  27. 

2  Rexford  Tugwell,  “The  Gypsy  Strain,”  Pacific  Review,  pp.  177-78. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


83 


39.  S.  who  is  19  years  old  has  been  a  wanderer  for  nearly  four 
years.  He  does  not  know  why  he  travels  except  that  he  gets  thrills 
out  of  it.  He  says  that  there  is  nothing  that  he  likes  better 
than  to  catch  trains  out  of  a  town  where  the  police  are  rather 
strict.  When  he  can  outwit  the  “bulls”  he  gets  a  “kick”  out 
of  it.  He  would  rather  ride  the  passenger  trains  than  the 
freights  because  he  can  “get  there”  quicker,  and  then,  they  are 
watched  closer.  He  likes  to  tell  of  making  “big  jumps”  on 
passenger  trains  as  from  the  coast  to  Chicago  in  five  days,  or  from 
Chicago  to  Kansas  City  or  Omaha  in  one  day.  He  only  works 
long  enough  in  one  place  to  get  a  “grubstake,”  or  enough  money 
to  live  on  for  a  few  days. 

He  says  that  he  knows  that  he  would  be  better  off  if  he  would 
settle  down  at  some  steady  job.  He  has  tried  it  a  few  times  but 
the  monotony  of  it  made  him  so  restless  that  he  had  to  leave. 
He  thinks  that  he  might  be  able  to  stay  in  a  city  if  he  had  a  steady 
job  and  he  agreed  to  take  such  a  job  if  he  could  get  it.  Jobs  were 
scarce  and  the  investigator  promised  to  take  him  to  the  United 
Charities  to  help  him  get  placed. 

The  following  morning  the  lad  came  to  the  office  with  another 
boy  with  whom  he  had  become  acquainted  that  morning.  He 
had  changed  his  mind  about  that  job  but  wanted  to  thank 
everyone  who  had  taken  an  interest  in  him.  He  and  his  “  buddy” 
were  going  to  “make  the  Harvest.” 

The  longing  to  see  the  world  is  often  stimulated 
in  a  boy  by  reason  of  the  experiences  of  some  relative 
or  friend  whom  he  admires.  One  boy  went  on  the 
road  because  of  the  influence  his  uncle  had  upon  him. 
The  uncle  did  not  advise  him  to  leave  home,  in  fact, 
he  did  not  know  very  much  about  the  boy.  But  the 
uncle  had  been  to  war,  and  had  traveled  in  China, 
Alaska,  and  South  America.  The  boy  had  to  go  on 
the  road  to  become  disillusioned.  He  now  knows 
that  his  uncle  is  a  plain  tramp  and  that  he  himself  has 
become  a  hobo. 

40.  W.  left  home  when  he  was  sixteen.  He  was  the  oldest 
of  a  family  of  five  boys  and  three  girls.  His  father  owned  a  farm 
in  Michigan  and  was  usually  hard  pressed  for  means.  He 


84 


THE  HOBO 


needed  help  at  home  and  so  W.  was  kept  out  of  school  a  great 
deal.  When  he  did  go  to  school  it  was  hard  for  him  to  learn. 
When  the  father  saw  that  the  younger  boys  were  passing  W.  in 
school  he  decided  that  it  was  time  wasted  to  send  W.  to  school. 
W.  was  big  for  his  age  and  the  father  imposed  more  work  on  him 
than  on  the  other  boys  who  were  smaller.  W.  felt  that  he  was 
not  getting  a  square  deal  so  he  ran  away. 

He  remained  away  a  year  before  he  dared  to  write.  One 
reason  he  did  not  write  sooner  was  because  he  was  not  earning 
much  money,  and  the  other  reason  was  that  he  feared  his  father 
would  hunt  him  down  and  force  him  to  return.  When  he  felt  se¬ 
cure  he  wrote  more  frequently  and  most  of  his  letters  were  boast¬ 
ful.  He  told  of  prospering  and  he  moved  from  place  to  place 
often  to  show  the  other  children  at  home  that  he  could  go  and 
come  as  he  pleased.  He  traveled  in  different  parts  of  the  country 
and  from  each  part  he  would  write  painting  his  experiences  in  a 
rosy  hue. 

He  succeeded  in  stirring  up  unrest  in  the  hearts  of  the  other 
boys  who  left  home  one  by  one.  In  about  two  years  N.  followed 
W.  L.  soon  began  to  feel  that  he  too  could  make  “his  way”  so 
he  left.  All  five  of  the  boys  left  home  before  they  were  sixteen. 
Each  felt  that  he  was  wasting  his  time  about  home  while  the 
other  boys  were  seeing  the  country  and  making  good  money. 
Only  one  of  the  five  boys  returned  home.  The  others  roamed 
the  country  following  migratory  work.  One  married  but  only 
lived  with  his  wife  a  year  and  then  deserted  her. 

The  father  always  blamed  W.  for  leading  the  boys  away. 
W.  used  to  send  presents  to  the  other  members  of  the  family. 
He  used  to  send  the  mother  money  now  and  then.  Ho  was  the 
idol  of  the  rest  of  the  children  and  they  left  home  to  follow  in 
his  footsteps. 

A  visit  to  the  “jungles”  at  the  junction  of  any 
railroad  or  at  the  outskirts  of  any  large  city  or  even 
small  town  reveals  the  extent  to  which  the  tramp  is 
consciously  and  enthusiastically  imitated.  Around 
the  camp  fire  watching  the  coffee  pot  boil  or  the 
“mulligan”  cook,  the  boys  are  often  found  mingling 
with  the  tramps  and  listening  in  on  their  stories  of 
adventure. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


85 


To  boys  the  tramp  is  not  a  problem,  but  a  human 
being,  and  an  interesting  one  at  that.  He  has  no 
cares  nor  burdens  to  hold  him  down.  All  he  is  con¬ 
cerned  with  is  to  live  and  seek  adventure,  and  in  this 
he  personifies  the  heroes  in  the  stories  the  boys  have 
read.  Tramp  life  is  an  invitation  to  a  career  of 
varied  experiences  and  adventures.  All  this  is  a 
promise  and  a  challenge.  A  promise  that  all  the 
wishes  that  disturb  him  shall  be  fulfilled  and  a 
challenge  to  leave  the  work-a-day  world  that  he  is 
bound  to. 


THE  MULTIPLE  EXPLANATION 

No  single  cause  can  be  found  to  explain  how  a  man 
may  be  reduced  to  the  status  of  a  homeless,  migra¬ 
tory,  and  casual  laborer.  In  any  given  case  all  of 
the  factors  analyzed  above  may  have  entered  into 
the  process  of  economic  and  social  degradation. 
Indeed,  the  conjunction  of  several  of  these  causes  is 
necessary  to  explain  the  extent  and  the  nature  of 
the  casualization  and  mobility  of  labor  in  this 
country.  Unemployment  and  seasonal  work  dis¬ 
organize  the  routine  of  life  of  the  individual  worker 
and  destroy  regular  habits  of  work  but  at  the  same 
time  thousands  of  boys  and  men  moved  by  wander¬ 
lust  are  eager  to  escape  the  monotony  of  stable  and 
settled  existence.  No  matter  how  perfect  a  social 
and  economic  order  may  yet  be  devised  there  will 
always  remain  certain  “misfits,”  the  industrially 
inadequate,  the  unstable  and  egocentric,  who  will 
ever  tend  to  conflict  with  constituted  authority  in 
industry,  society,  and  government. 

The  description,  however,  of  these  causes  of 
vagabondage — (a)  unemployment  and  seasonal  work, 


86 


THE  HOBO 


(b)  industrial  inadequacy,  (c)  defects  of  personality, 
(d)  crises  in  the  life  of  the  person,  ( e )  racial  or  national 
discrimination,  (/)  wanderlust — is  a  necessary  condi¬ 
tion  to  any  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  homeless 
man.  A  program  is  remedial  and  not  preventive 
that  does  not  grapple  with  the  fundamental  causes 
here  revealed.  These  causes  have  roots  at  the  very 
core  of  our  American  life,  in  our  industrial  system, 
in  education,  cultural  and  vocational,  in  family  rela¬ 
tions,  in  the  problems  of  racial  and  immigrant  adjust¬ 
ment,  and  in  the  opportunity  offered  or  denied  by 
society  for  the  expression  of  the  wishes  of  the  person. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  HOBO  AND  THE  TRAMP 


THE  term  “ homeless  man”  was  used  by  Mrs. 

Alice  W.  Solenberger  in  her  study  of  1,000  cases 
in  Chicago  to  include  all  types  of  unattached  men, 
tramps,  hobos,  bums,  and  the  other  nameless  varieties 
of  the  “go-abouts.” 

Almost  all  “tramps”  are  “homeless  men”  but  by  no  means 
are  all  homeless  men  tramps.  The  homeless  man  may  be  an 
able-bodied  workman  without  a  family;  he  may  be  a  runaway 
boy,  a  consumptive  temporarily  stranded  on  his  way  to  a  health 
resort,  an  irresponsible,  feeble-minded,  or  insane  man,  but  unless 
he  is  also  a  professional  wanderer  he  is  not  a  “tramp.”1 

There  is  no  better  term  at  hand  than  “homeless 
men  ”  by  which  the  men  who  inhabit  Hobohemia  may 
be  characterized.  Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman,  who  has 
himself  traveled  as  a  tramp,  in  the  sense  in  which  he 
uses  the  word,  has  defined  the  three  principal  types 
of  the  hobo.  He  says: 

There  are  three  types  of  the  genus  vagrant:  the  hobo,  the 
tramp,  and  the  bum.  The  hobo  works  and  wanders,  the  tramp 
dreams  and  wanders  and  the  bum  drinks  and  wanders. 

St.  John  Tucker,  formerly  the  president  of  the 
“Hobo  College”  in  Chicago,  gives  the  same  classi¬ 
fication  with  a  slightly  different  definition: 

A  hobo  is  a  migratory  worker.  A  tramp  is  a  migratory  non¬ 
worker.  A  bum  is  a  stationary  non-worker.  Upon  the  labor  of 
the  migratory  worker  all  the  basic  industries  depend.  He  goes 
forth  from  the  crowded  slavemarkets  to  hew  the  forests,  build 
and  repair  the  railroads,  tunnel  mountains  and  build  ravines. 
His  is  the  labor  that  harvests  the  wheat  in  the  fall  and  cuts  the 
ice  in  the  winter.  All  of  these  are  hobos. 

1  One  Thousand  Homeless  Men ,  p.  209. 

[87 


88 


THE  HOBO 


M.  Kuhn,  of  St.  Louis  (and  elsewhere),  a  migrant, 
a  writer,  and,  according  to  his  own  definition,  a  hobo, 
in  a  pamphlet  entitled  “The  Hobo  Problem”  gives 
a  fairly  representative  statement  of  the  homeless 
man’s  explanation  of  his  lot. 

The  hobo  is  a  seasonal,  transient,  migratory  worker  of 
either  sex.  Being  a  seasonal  worker  he  is  necessarily  idle  much 
of  the  time;  being  transient,  he  is  necessarily  homeless.  He  is 
detached  from  the  soil  and  the  fireside.  By  the  nature  of  his 
work  and  not  by  his  own  will,  he  is  precluded  from  establishing 
a  home  and  rearing  a  family.  Sex,  poverty,  habits  and  degree 
of  skill  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  classifying  individuals 
as  hobos;  the  character  of  his  work  does  that. 

There  are  individuals  not  hobos  who  pose  as  such.  They  are 
enabled  to  do  this  for  two  reasons:  first,  hobos  have  no  organiza¬ 
tion  by  which  they  can  expose  the  impostor;  second,  the  frauds 
are  encouraged  and  made  possible  by  organized  and  private 
charity.  The  hobo  class,  therefore,  is  unable  to  rid  itself  of  this 
extremely  undesirable  element.  With  organization  it  can  and 
will  be  done  even  if  charity,  which  is  strongly  opposed  by  the 
hobo  class,  is  not  abolished. 

Nicholas  Klein,  president  of  the  “Hobo  College” 
and  attorney  and  adviser  to  James  Eads  How,  the 
so-called  hobo  millionaire,  who  finances  the  “Hobo 
College,”  says: 

A  hobo  is  one  who  travels  in  search  of  work,  the  migratory 
worker  who  must  go  about  to  find  employment.  Workers  of 
that  sort  pick  our  berries,  fruit,  hops,  and  help  to  harvest  the 
crops  on  the  western  farms.  They  follow  the  seasons  around 
giving  their  time  to  farms  in  spring,  summer,  and  autumn,  and 
ending  up  in  the  ice  fields  in  winter.  We  could  not  get  in  our 
crops  without  them  for  the  hobo  is  the  boy  who  does  the  work. 
The  name  originated  from  the  words  “hoe-boy”  plainly  derived 
from  work  on  the  farm.  A  tramp  is  one  who  travels  but  does  not 
work,  and  a  bum  is  a  man  who  stays  in  one  place  and  does  not 
work.  Between  these  grades  there  is  a  great  gulf  of  social  dis¬ 
tinction.  Don’t  get  tramps  and  hobos  mixed.  They  are  quite 


LEADERS  IN  THE  EDUCATIONAL  MOVEMENT  AMONG 

THE  HOBOS 


A  POPULAR  RESORT  IN  HOBOHEMIA 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


89 


different  in  many  respects.  The  chief  difference  being  that  the 
hobo  will  work  and  the  tramp  will  not,  preferring  to  live  on  what 
he  can  pick  up  at  back  doors  as  he  makes  his  way  through  the 
country.1 

Roger  Payne,  A.B.  and  LL.B.,  who  has  taken 
upon  himself  the  title  “hobo  philosopher/’  sees  only 
one  type  of  the  wanderer  and  that  is  the  hobo.  The 
hobo  to  him  is  a  migratory  worker.  If  he  works  but 
does  not  migrate,  or  if  he  migrates  but  does  not  work, 
he  is  not  a  hobo.  All  others  are  either  tramps  or 
bums.  He  makes  no  distinction  between  them. 
The  hobo,  foot-loose  and  care-free,  leads,  Mr.  Payne 
thinks,  the  ideal  life. 

Although  we  cannot  draw  lines  closely,  it  seems 
clear  that  there  are  at  least  five  types  of  homeless 
men:  ( a )  the  seasonal  worker,2  (b)  the  transient  or 
occasional  worker  or  hobo,  (r)  the  tramp  who 
“dreams  and  wanders”  and  works  only  when  it  is 
convenient,  ( d )  the  bum  who  seldom  wanders  and 
seldom  works,  and  (e)  the  home  guard  who  lives  in 
Hobohemia  and  does  not  leave  town.3 

THE  SEASONAL  WORKER 

Seasonal  workers  are  men  who  have  definite 
occupations  in  different  seasons.  The  yearly  circuit 
of  their  labors  takes  them  about  the  country,  often 
into  several  different  states.  These  men  may  work 
in  the  clothing  industries  during  cold  weather  but 
in  summer  are  employed  at  odd  jobs;  or  they  may 
have  steady  work  in  summer  and  do  odd  jobs  in 

1 Dearborn  Independent ,  March  18,  1922. 

2  The  seasonal  worker  may  be  regarded  also  as  the  upper-class  hobo. 

3  The  first  three  types  of  homeless  men  are  described  in  this  chapter;  the 
last  two  types  are  considered  in  chapter  vii. 


90 


THE  HOBO 


winter.  One  man  picks  fruit  in  summer  and  works 
as  a  machinist  in  winter.  He  does  not  spend  his 
summers  in  the  same  state  nor  his  winters  in  the 
same  city  but  follows  those  two  occupations  through¬ 
out  the  year. 

41.  Bill  S.  is  a  Scotchman  and  a  seasonal  worker.  During 
the  winter  he  is  usually  in  Chicago.  He  works  as  a  practical 
nurse.  He  is  efficient  and  well  liked  by  his  patients  and  a 
steady  worker  during  the  winter.  In  summer  he  quits  and  goes 
to  the  harvest  fields  or  works  on  a  construction  job.  Since  leav¬ 
ing  his  winter  job  (March  to  October,  1922)  he  has  had  several 
jobs  out  of  Chicago  none  of  which  lasted  more  than  a  week  or 
two.  Between  times  he  loafs  on  West  Madison  Street.  He 
does  not  drink.  He  is  well  behaved.  Seldom  dresses  up.  When 
last  heard  of  he  was  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  where  he  thought 
he  would  spend  the  winter. 

42.  Jack  M.  works  on  the  lake  boats  during  the  sailing  season. 
When  the  boats  tie  up  for  the  winter  he  tries  to  get  into  the 
factories,  or  he  goes  to  the  woods.  Sometimes  during  the  tie-up 
he  takes  a  notion  to  travel  and  goes  West  or  South  to  while  away 
the  time.  He  has  just  returned  from  a  trip  East  and  South 
where  he  has  been  “seeking  work”  and  “killing  time”  a  week  or 
so  before  the  season  opened.  He  has  already  signed  up  for  the 
summer.  He  is  loafing  and  lodging  in  the  meanwhile  on  West 
Madison  and  South  State  streets. 

The  seasonal  worker  has  a  particular  kind  of  work 
that  he  follows  somewhere  at  least  part  of  the  year. 
The  hotels  of  Hobohemia  are  a  winter  resort  for 
many  of  these  seasonal  workers  whose  schedule  is 
relatively  fixed  and  habitudinal.  Some  of  these  who 
return  to  the  city  regularly  every  winter  come  with 
money.  In  that  case,  they  do  not  work  until  next 
season.  Others  return  without  money.  They  have 
some  kind  of  work  which  they  follow  in  the  winter. 
The  hobo,  proper,  is  a  transient  worker  without  a 
program. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


91 


THE  HOBO 

A  hobo  is  a  migratory  worker  in  the  strict  sense  of 
the  word.  He  works  at  whatever  is  convenient  in  the 
mills,  the  shops,  the  mines,  the  harvests,  or  any  of 
the  numerous  jobs  that  come  his  way  without  regard 
for  the  times  or  the  seasons.  The  range  of  his  activi¬ 
ties  is  nation  wide  and  with  many  hobos  it  is  inter¬ 
national.  He  may  cross  a  continent  between  jobs. 
He  may  be  able  in  one  year  to  function  in  several 
industries.  He  may  have  a  trade  or  even  a  profes¬ 
sion.  He  may  even  be  reduced  to  begging  between 
jobs,  but  his  living  is  primarily  gained  by  work  and 
that  puts  him  in  the  hobo  class. 

43.  E.  J.  is  a  carpenter.  He  was  at  one  time  a  good  work¬ 
man  but  due  to  drink  and  dissipation  he  has  lost  his  ability  to  do 
fine  work  and  has  been  reduced  to  the  status  of  a  rough  carpenter. 
At  present  he  follows  bridge  work  and  concrete  form  work. 
Sometimes  he  tries  his  hand  at  plain  house  carpentry  but  due  to 
the  fact  that  he  moves  about  so  much,  he  has  lost  or  disposed 
of  many  of  his  tools.  A  spree  lasts  about  three  weeks  and  he 
has  about  three  or  four  a  year.  Sometimes  he  travels  without  his 
kit  and  does  not  work  at  his  trade.  He  never  drinks  while  work¬ 
ing.  It  is  only  when  he  goes  to  town  to  spend  his  vacations  that 
he  gets  drunk.  He  is  restless  and  uncomfortable  and  does  not 
know  how  to  occupy  his  mind  when  he  is  in  town  and  sober. 
He  is  fifty-six  years  old.  He  never  married  and  never  has  had 
a  home  since  he  was  a  boy. 

44.  M.  P.  is  interesting  because  he  has  a  trade  but  does  not 
follow  it  seasonally.  He  is  a  plasterer  and  he  seems  to  be  a  good 
one.  In  his  youth  he  learned  the  trade  of  stone  mason.  He 
came  to  this  country  from  England  in  his  twenties  and  he  is  past 
fifty  now.  He  married  in  Pennsylvania  where  his  wife  died  and 
where  a  daughter  still  lives.  He  became  a  wanderer  and  for 
many  years  did  not  work  at  his  trade.  He  did  various  kinds  of 
work  as  the  notion  came  to  him.  As  he  is  getting  older  he  is 
less  inclined  to  wander  and  he  makes  fewer  excursions  into  other 
lines  of  work  outside  his  trade.  During  the  past  year  he  has  not 


92 


THE  HOBO 


left  Chicago  and  he  has  done  little  other  than  to  work  as  a 
plasterer.  He  lives  in  the  Hobohemian  areas  and  is  able  to  get 
along  two  or  three  weeks  on  a  few  days’  work.  He  seldom  works 
more  than  a  week  at  a  time.  He  takes  a  lively  interest  in  the 
hobo  movement  of  the  city  and  has  been  actively  engaged  in  the 
“  Hobo  College.”  Recently  he  won  a  lot  in  a  raffle.  It  is  located 
in  the  suburbs  of  the  city.  During  the  summer  (1922)  he  had 
a  camp  out  there  and  he  and  his  friends  from  Madison  Street 
spent  considerable  time  in  his  private  “jungle.” 

The  hobo  group  comprises  the  bulk  of  the  migra¬ 
tory  workers,  in  fact,  nearly  all  migrants  in  transit 
are  hobos  of  one  sort  or  other.  Hobos  have  a  romantic 
place  in  our  history.  From  the  beginning  they  have 
been  numbered  among  the  pioneers.  They  have 
played  an  important  role  in  reclaiming  the  desert 
and  in  subduing  the  trackless  forests.  They  have 
contributed  more  to  the  open,  frank,  and  adventur¬ 
ous  spirit  of  the  Old  West  than  we  are  always  willing 
to  admit.  They  are,  as  it  were,  belated  frontiersmen. 
Their  presence  in  the  migrant  group  has  been  the 
chief  factor  in  making  the  American  vagabond  class 
different  from  that  of  any  other  country. 

It  is  difficult  to  classify  the  numerous  types  of 
hobos.  The  habits,  type  of  work,  the  routes  of 
travel,  etc.,  seem  to  differ  with  each  individual. 
Some  live  more  parasitic  lives  than  others.  Some 
never  beg  or  get  drunk,  while  others  never  come  to 
town  without  getting  intoxicated  and  being  robbed 
or  arrested,  and  perhaps  beaten.  One  common  char¬ 
acteristic  of  the  hobo,  however,  is  that  he  works.  He 
usually  has  horny  hands  and  a  worker’s  mien.  He 
aims  to  live  by  his  labor. 

As  there  are  different  types  of  homeless  men,  so 
different  varieties  of  this  particular  brand,  the  hobo, 
may  be  differentiated.  A  part  of  the  hobo  group 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


93 


known  as  “harvest  hands”  follows  the  harvest  and 
other  agricultural  occupations  of  seasonal  nature. 
Another  segment  of  the  group  works  in  the  lumber 
woods  and  are  known  as  “lumber  jacks”  or 
“timber  beasts.”  A  third  group  is  employed  in 
construction  and  maintenance  work.  A  “gandy 
dancer”  is  a  man  who  works  on  the  railroad  track 
tamping  ties.  If  he  works  on  the  section  he  may 
be  called  a  “snipe”  or  a  “jerry.” 

A  “ skinner”  is  a  man  who  drives  horses  or  mules. 

A  “mucker”  or  a  “shovel  stiff”  is  a  man  who  does  manual 
labor  on  construction  jobs. 

A  “rust  eater”  usually  works  on  extra-gangs  or  track-laying 
jobs;  handles  steel. 

A  “dino”  is  a  man  who  works  with  and  handles  dynamite. 

A  “  splinter-belly  ”  is  a  man  who  does  rough  carpenter  work  or 
bridge  work. 

A  “cotton  glaumer”  picks  cotton,  an  “apple  knocker”  picks 
apples  and  other  fruit. 

A  “beach  comber”  is  a  plain  sailor,  of  all  men  the  most 
transient. 

For  every  vocation  that  is  open  to  the  migratory 
worker  there  is  some  such  characteristic  name.  In 
the  West  the  hobo  usually  carries  a  bundle  in  which  he 
has  a  bed,  some  extra  clothes,  and  a  little  food.  The 
man  who  carries  such  a  bundle  is  usually  known  as  a 
“  bundle  stiff”  or  “  bundle  bum.”  The  modern  hobo 
does  not  carry  a  bundle  because  it  hinders  him  when 
he  wishes  to  travel  fast.  It  is  the  old  man  who  went 
West  “to  grow  up  with  the  country”  who  still  clings 
to  his  blanket  roll. 

THE  TRAMP 

While  the  word  “  tramp  ”  is  often  used  as  a  blanket 
term  applied  to  all  classes  of  homeless  and  potentially 
vagrant  or  transient  types,  it  is  here  used  in  a  stricter 


94 


THE  HOBO 


sense  to  designate  a  smaller  group.  He  is  usually 
thought  of,  by  those  familiar  with  his  natural  his¬ 
tory,  as  an  able-bodied  individual  who  has  the 
romantic  passion  to  see  the  country  and  to  gain  new 
experience  without  work.  He  is  a  specialist  at 
“getting  by.”  He  is  the  type  that  Josiah  Flynt 
had  in  mind  when  he  wrote  his  book,  Tramping  with 
Tramps.  He  is  typically  neither  a  drunkard  nor  a 
bum,  but  an  easy-going  individual  who  lives  from 
hand  to  mouth  for  the  mere  joy  of  living. 

45.  X.  began  life  as  a  half  orphan.  Later  he  was  adopted  and 
taken  from  Ohio  to  South  Dakota.  In  his  early  teens  he  grew 
restive  at  home  and  left.  But  for  brief  seasons  he  has  been 
away  ever  since  and  he  is  now  past  forty-five.  He  has  traveled 
far  and  wide  since  but  has  worked  little.  He  makes  his  living  by 
selling  joke  books  and  song  books.  Sometimes  he  tries  his  hand 
at  selling  little  articles  from  door  to  door.  A  few  years  ago  he 
wrote  a  booklet  on  an  economic  subject  and  sold  several  thousand 
copies.  During  the  winter  of  1921-22  he  sold  the  Hobo  News 
each  month.  He  is  able  to  make  a  living  this  way.  Any  extra 
money  he  has  he  loses  at  the  gambling  tables.  He  spends  his 
leisure  time  attempting  to  write  songs  or  poetry.  He  knows  a 
great  deal  about  publishers  but  it  is  all  information  that  has  come 
in  his  efforts  to  sell  his  songs.  He  claims  that  he  has  been  work¬ 
ing  for  several  years  on  a  novel.  He  offered  his  work  for  inspec¬ 
tion.  He  tries  to  lead  the  hero  through  all  the  places  that  he 
has  visited  and  the  hero  comes  in  contact  with  many  of  the 
things  he  has  seen  or  experienced  in  many  cities  but  nowhere  does 
his  hero  work.  He  enjoys  life  just  as  X.  endeavors  to  do  now. 
During  the  summer  (1922)  he  has  taken  several  “vacations” 
in  the  country  for  a  week  or  more  at  the  time. 

46.  C.  is  twenty-five  years  old.  His  home  is  in  New  York 
but  he  has  not  been  home  for  more  than  ten  years.  He  intro¬ 
duced  himself  to  the  “Hobo  College”  early  in  the  spring  of  1^22 
as  “  B-2.”  This  name  he  assumed  upon  the  conviction  that  he 
is  the  successor  of  “A-i,”  the  famous  tramp.  He  said  that  he 
had  read  “A-i’s”  books  and  although  he  did  not  agree  in  every 
respect,  yet  he  thought  that  “A-i”  was  the  greatest  of  tramp 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


95 


writers.  “B-2”  claimed  that  he  had  ridden  on  every  railroad  in 
the  United  States.  His  evidence  of  travel  was  a  book  of  post- 
office  stamps.  When  he  comes  to  a  town  he  goes  to  the  post- 
office  and  requests  the  postmaster  to  stamp  his  book  much 
as  letters  are  stamped.  Another  hobby  he  has  is  to  go  to  the 
leading  newspapers  and  endeavor  to  sell  a  write-up.  He  carries 
an  accumulation  of  clippings.  He  has  an  assortment  of  flashy 
stories  that  take  well  with  newspaper  men.  He  claims  that  he 
has  been  pursued  by  bloodhounds  in  the  South,  that  he  has  been 
arrested  many  times  for  vagrancy,  that  he  is  the  only  man  who 
has  beat  his  way  on  the  Pikes  Peak  Railroad.  He  always  carries 
a  blanket  and  many  other  things  that  class  him  among  wanderers 
as  an  individualist.  He  has  been  in  the  Army,  saw  action  and 
was  in  the  Army  of  Occupation.  He  does  not  seek  work.  He 
says  his  leisure  time  can  be  better  spent.  He  carries  a  vest 
pocket  kodak.  He  says  that  the  pictures  and  notes  he  takes  will 
some  day  be  published. 

The  distinctions  between  the  seasonal  worker, 
the  hobo,  and  the  tramp,  while  important,  are  not 
hard  and  fast.  The  seasonal  worker  may  descend 
into  the  ranks  of  the  hobos,  and  a  hobo  may  sink  to 
the  level  of  the  tramp.  But  the  knowledge  of  this 
tendency  to  pass  from  one  migratory  group  to 
another  is  significant  for  any  program  that  attempts 
to  deal  with  the  homeless  man.  Significant,  also, 
but  not  sufficiently  recognized,  is  the  difference 
between  these  migratory  types  and  the  stationary 
types  of  homeless  men,  the  “home  guard”  and  the 
“  bum.” 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  HOME  GUARD  AND  THE  BUM 


THE  seasonal  worker,  the  hobo,  and  the  tramp 
are  migratory  types;  the  home  guard  and  the 
bum  are  relatively  stationary.  The  home  guard,  like 
the  hobo,  is  a  casual  laborer,  but  he  works,  often  only 
by  the  day,  now  at  one  and  again  at  another  of  the 
multitude  of  unskilled  jobs  in  the  city.  The  bum, 
like  the  tramp,  is  unwilling  to  work  and  lives  by 
begging  and  petty  thieving. 

THE  HOME  GUARD 

Nearly  if  not  quite  one-half  of  the  homeless  men 
in  Hobohemia  are  stationary  casual  laborers.  These 
men,  contemptuously  termed  “home  guards’’  by 
the  hobo  and  the  tramp,  work  regularly  or  irregularly 
at  unskilled  work,  day  labor,  and  odd  jobs.  They 
live  or  at  least  spend  their  leisure  time  on  the 
“main  stem,”  but  seldom  come  to  the  attention  of 
the  charities  or  the  police,  or  ask  alms  on  the  street. 
Many  of  them  have  lived  in  Chicago  for  years. 
Others  after  a  migratory  career  as  hobos  or  tramps 
“settle  down”  to  a  stationary  existence.  This  group 
includes  remittance  men,  often  the  “black  sheep”  of 
families  of  standing  in  far-off  communities  who  send 
them  a  small  regular  allowance  to  remain  away  from 
home. 

47.  L.  E.  was  born  on  the  West  Side  and  at  present  his 
family  lives  in  Logan  Square.  He  is  twenty-three  years  old  and 
has  been  away  from  home  a  year.  He  claims  that  after  his 
mother’s  death  he  and  his  father  could  not  agree.  He  imme¬ 
diately  found  his  way  to  West  Madison  Street  where  he  has  lived 
since.  During  the  winter  (1921-22)  he  was  converted  in  the 
Bible  Rescue  Mission  but  later  he  got  drunk  and  would  not 

96 1 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


97 


try  again.  However,  he  used  to  visit  the  mission  after  that  when 
he  had  no  bed  and  was  hungry.  He  is  a  teamster  and  works 
regularly  though  he  saves  no  money.  He  has  no  decent  clothing 
and  cares  for  none.  He  cares  only  to  spend  his  Sundays  and 
leisure  time  on  West  Madison  Street,  where  he  has  a  few 
acquaintances.  He  usually  returns  to  work  Monday  morning 
after  such  visits,  sick  from  the  moonshine  whisky.  His  health 
is  not  good.  Most  of  his  teeth  are  decayed  but  he  will  not  save 
money  to  get  dental  work  done.  If  he  has  any  money  to  spend 
aside  from  that  wanted  for  booze  he  goes  to  the  movies  and  loafs 
the  time  away.  He  also  attends  the  Haymarket  or  the  Star 
and  Garter  theaters.  He  left  his  job  two  or  three  times  during 
the  summer.  While  he  was  not  working  he  slept  in  stables.  He 
doesn’t  go  home  nor  communicate  with  his  people. 

The  tendency  for  the  casual  worker  to  sink  to 
the  level  of  the  bum  is  illustrated  by  the  case  of 
“Shorty” : 

48.  “Shorty”  claims  that  he  has  lived  in  the  Hobohemian 
areas  on  South  State  and  West  Madison  streets  for  thirty-nine 
years.  He  has  never  lived  anywhere  else.  He  doesn’t  care  to  go 
anywhere  else.  He  tried  married  life  a  while  but  failed  because 
of  drink  and  returned  to  the  “street.”  Drink  is  still  getting  him 
into  trouble.  He  has  dropped  down  the  economic  scale  from  an 
occasional  worker  to  the  status  of  a  bum.  This  summer  (1922) 
he  has  been  arrested  several  times,  and  he  has  served  two  terms 
at  the  House  of  Correction.  All  the  arrests  were  for  drunken¬ 
ness  and  disorder.  He  is  developing  into  a  professional  pan¬ 
handler  or  beggar.  During  the  summer  he  has  had  two  or  three 
jobs.  Once  he  was  at  the  stockyards  where  he  claims  to  have 
worked  steadily  in  the  early  days.  Being  well  known  on  the 
“streets”  he  is  able  to  get  odd  jobs  now  and  then  that  give  him 
money  enough  to  “get  by.”  He  has  not  been  divorced  from  his 
wife.  She  won’t  live  with  him  and  he  does  not  care.  He  has  a 
child  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old  but  he  has  not  seen  her  for 
several  years.  He  does  not  know  where  she  is.  He  is  not 
interested.  He  spends  his  leisure  time  on  Madison  Street  near 
Desplaines  where  he  may  be  found  almost  every  day  stand¬ 
ing  on  the  corner  or  sitting  on  the  curb  talking  to  some 
other  “bo.” 


98 


THE  HOBO 


THE  BUM 

In  every  city  there  are  ne’er-do-wells — men  who 
are  wholly  or  partially  dependent  and  frequently  de¬ 
linquent  as  well.  The  most  hopeless  and  the  most 
helpless  of  all  the  homeless  men  is  the  bum,  including 
in  this  type  the  inveterate  drunkard  and  drug 
addicts.  Old,  helpless,  and  unemployable,  these  are 
the  most  pitiable  and  the  most  repulsive  types  of  the 
down-and-outs.  From  this  class  are  recruited  the 
so-called  “mission  stiff’s”  who  are  so  unpopular 
among  the  Hobohemian  population. 

49.  L.  D.,  forty-five  years  old,  is  a  typical  so-called  “mission 
bum.”  He  has  not  been  known  to  work  for  eight  months.  During 
winter  he  is  always  present  in  some  mission.  Once  he  permitted 
himself  to  be  led  forward  and  knelt  in  prayer  but  was  put  out  of 
the  same  mission  later  for  being  drunk.  He  claims  that  he  was 
a  prize  fighter  in  his  youth.  He  has  traveled  a  great  deal  but  he 
has  always  been  a  drinking  man.  When  he  is  sober  he  is  morose 
and  quiet.  As  soon  as  spring  permitted  him  to  sleep  out  he 
ceased  to  visit  the  missions. 

He  has  spent  most  of  the  summer  on  the  docks  along  the 
river  where  he  sleeps  nights  and  where  he  has  been  getting  work 
now  and  then  unloading  the  fruit  boats  that  ply  between  Chicago 
and  Michigan.  During  the  eight  months  he  has  been  observed 
he  has  bought  no  new  clothes.  Not  once  during  the  summer  has 
he  left  the  city.  He  says  that  he  has  been  in  town  for  three  years. 
The  future  seems  to  mean  nothing  to  him.  He  does  not  worry 
about  the  coming  winter. 

50.  A.  B.  is  an  habitual  drunkard.  He  migrates  a  great  deal 
but  it  seems  that  his  migrations  are  to  escape  tedium  and  monot¬ 
ony  rather  than  to  work.  He  is  a  little,  hollow-chested,  under¬ 
sized  man  and  he  claims  to  be  thirty-two.  He  says  that  his 
health  has  not  been  good.  He  has  a  work  history,  it  seems,  but 
it  is  a  record  of  light  jobs.  He  picked  berries,  washed  dishes, 
peddled,  but  he  was  also  a  successful  beggar.  His  success  in 
begging  seems  to  lie  in  the  ability  to  look  pitiful.  He  has  been  in 
but  four  or  five  states  of  the  Middle  West  but  has  been  in  most 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


99 


of  the  large  cities.  He  does  not  patronize  the  missions  because 
he  says  he  can  do  better  begging. 

OTHER  TYPES  OF  HOMELESS  MEN 

Many  of  the  terms  which  are  epithets  picturesquely 
describe  special  types  of  homeless  men.  The  popular 
names  for  the  various  types  of  tramps  and  hobos  are 
current  terms  that  have  been  picked  up  on  the  street 
as  they  pass  from  mouth  to  mouth.  Some  of  them 
are  new,  others  are  old,  while  all  of  them  are  in 
flux.  Names  of  types  are  coined  by  the  men  them¬ 
selves.  They  serve  a  while  and  then  pass  out,  giving 
place  to  new  and  more  catchy  terms.  Change  is 
characteristic  of  tramp  terminology  and  tramp 
jargon.  Words  assume  a  different  meaning  as  they 
are  extensively  used,  or  they  become  too  general  in 
their  use  and  newer  terms  are  invented.  Many  of 
the  names  by  which  types  are  designated  were  at 
first  terms  of  derision,  but  terms  seem  to  lose  their 
stigma  by  continued  use.1 

Among  tramps  who  seldom  if  ever  work  are  those 
who  peddle  some  kind  of  wares  or  sell  some  kind  of 
service. 

The  Mushfaker  is  a  man  who  sells  his  services.  He  may  be 
a  tinker,  a  glazier,  an  umbrella  mender,  or  he  may  repair  sewing 
machines  or  typewriters.  Some  mushfakers  even  pose  as  piano 
tuners.  The  mushfaker  usually  follows  some  occupation  which 
permits  him  to  sit  in  the  shade  while  he  works.  Often  the  trade 
or  art  he  plies  is  one  that  he  has  learned  in  a  penal  institution. 

The  Scissor  Bill  is  a  man  who  carries  with  him  tools  to 
sharpen  saws,  knives,  razors,  etc.  Often  he  pushes  a  grindstone 
along  the  street. 

Beggars  among  tramps  are  usually  named  with  reference  to 
the  methods  they  employ. 

1The  term  “punk”  is  an  instance;  it  had  a  special  meaning  at  one  time 
but  is  beginning  to  have  a  milder  and  more  general  use  and  the  term  “lamb”  is 
taking  its  place. 


100 


THE  HOBO 


The  following  classification  is  taken  from  a  narra¬ 
tive  work  by  “A  No.  i,  The  Famous  Tramp/’  who 
claims  to  have  traveled  500,000  miles  for  $7.61.  His 
books  are  more  or  less  sensational  and  are  not  popular 
among  many  tramps,  because  they  say  the  incidents 
he  relates  are  overdrawn.1 


The  Rating  of  the  Tramps  by  “A  No.  1” 


1.  Pillinger . 

2.  Moocher . 

3.  Flopper . 

4.  Stiffy . 

5.  Dummy . 

6.  Wires . 

7.  Mush  Faker  )  . 

8.  Mush  Rigger  J 

9.  Wangy . 

10.  Stickers . 

11.  Timbers . 

12.  Sticks . 

1 3-  Peg . . . 

14.  Fingy  or  Fingers 

15.  Blinky . 

16.  Wingy . 

17.  Mitts . 

18.  Righty . 

19.  Lefty . 


.Solicited  alms  at  stores,  offices,  and 
residences 

.Accosted  passers-by  in  the  street 
.Squatted  on  sidewalk  in  business 
thoroughfares 
.Simulated  paralysis 
.  Pretends  to  be  deaf  and  dumb 
.Peddling  articles  made  of  stolen 
telegraph  wires 

,  Umbrella  mender  who  learned 
trade  in  penal  institution 
Disguised  begging  by  selling  shoe¬ 
strings 

Disguised  begging  by  selling  court 
plaster 

Disguised  begging  by  selling  lead 
pencils 

Train  rider  who  lost  a  leg 
Train  rider  who  lost  a  foot 
Train  rider  who  lost  one  or  more 
fingers 

Train  rider  who  lost  one  or  both 
eyes 

Train  rider  who  lost  one  or  both 
arms 

Train  rider  who  lost  one  or  both 
hands 

Train  rider  who  lost  right  arm 
and  leg 

Train  rider  who  lost  left  arm  and  leg 


1  Mother  Delcassee  of  the  Hobos ,  pp.  43-44. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


101 


20.  Halfy . Train  rider  who  lost  both  legs 

below  knee 

21.  Straight  Crip . Actually  crippled  or  otherwise 

afflicted 

22.  Phoney  Crip . Self-mutilated  or  simulating  a 

deformity 

23.  Pokey  Stiff . Subsisting  on  handouts  solely 

24.  Phoney  Stiff . Disposing  of  fraudulent  jewelry 

25.  Proper  Stiff . Considered  manual  toil  the  acme 

of  disgrace 

26.  Gink  or  Gandy  Stiff . Occasionally  labored,  a  day  or  two 

at  the  most 

27.  Alkee  Stiff  \  ^  c  ,  c  1  u  1 

n  TT7i  •  t*  o-W . Confirmed  consumers  of  alcohol 

28.  White  Line  Stiff  J 

29.  Rummy  Stiff . Deranged  intellect  by  habitual  use 

.  of  raw  rum 

30.  Bundle  Stiff  \  •  a  u  aa' 

31.  Blanket  Stiff/ . carried  bedd.ng 

32.  Chronicker . Hoboed  with  cooking  utensils 

33.  Stew  Bum 

34.  Ding  Bat 

35.  Fuzzy  Tail 

36.  Grease  Tail 
37-  Jungle  Buzzard  J 

38.  Shine  or  Dingy . Colored  vagabond 

39.  Gay  Cat.. . Employed  as  scout  by  criminal 

tramps 

40.  Dino  or  Dynamiter . Sponged  food  of  fellow  hobos 

41 .  Y egg . Roving  desperado 

42.  Gun  Moll . A  dangerous  woman  tramp 

43.  Hay  Bag . A  female  stew  bum 

44.  Jocker . Taught  minors  to  beg  and  crook 

45.  Road  Kid  or  Preshun.  . .  .Boy  held  in  bondage  by  jocker 

46.  Punk . Boy  discarded  by  jocker 

47.  Gonsil . Youth  not  yet  adopted  by  jocker 


► . The  dregs  of  vagrantdom 


The  beggar  is  one  who  stands  in  one  place.  He 
supplicates  help  by  appealing  to  the  pity  of  the 
passers-by.  The  moocher  is  an  individual  who  is 
somewhat  more  mobile  than  the  beggar.  He  moves 
about,  going  to  the  houses  and  asking  for  food,  cloth- 


102 


THE  HOBO 


ing,  and  even  money,  if  he  can  get  it.  The  pan¬ 
handler  is  a  beggar  of  a  more  courageous  type.  He 
hails  men  on  the  street  and  asks  for  money.  He  does 
not  fawn  nor  whine  nor  strive  to  arouse  pity.  Dr. 
Reitman  says:  “The  only  difference  between  a 
moocher  and  a  panhandler  is  that  the  moocher 
goes  to  the  back  door  while  the  panhandler  goes  to 
the  front  door.” 

The  beggar  types  may  also  be  divided  into  the 
able-bodied  and  the  non-able-bodied.  The  non-able- 
bodied  beggars  are  more  numerous  in  the  cities.  They 
are  forced,  because  of  their  handicaps,  to  remain 
where  the  greatest  number  of  people  are.  Some 
handicapped  beggars,  however,  are  able  to  travel 
with  marvelous  speed  over  the  country.  These  non- 
able-bodied  types  go  by  different  names  according 
to  their  afflictions. 

Peggy  is  a  one-legged  man.  Stumpy  is  a  legless  man. 
Wingy  is  a  man  with  one  or  both  arms  off.  Blinky  is  a  man  with 
one  or  both  eyes  defected.  A  Dummy  is  a  man  who  is  dumb  or 
deaf  and  dumb.  Some  of  these  types  do  not  beg.  They  make 
a  livelihood  by  peddling  or  working  at  odd  jobs.  A  Nut  is  a 
man  who  is  apparently  mentally  deranged. 

The  Hop  Head  is  an  interesting  type.  He  is 
usually  in  a  pitiful  condition,  for  he  has  small  chance, 
living  as  he  does,  in  the  tramp  class,  to  get  money  to 
buy  “dope.”  Frequently  he  resorts  to  clever  and 
even  desperate  means  to  secure  it.  One  type  of 
dope  fiend  is  the  Junkie.  He  uses  a  “gun  ”  or  needle 
to  inject  morphine  or  heroin.  A  Sniffer  is  one  who 
sniffs  cocaine.  More  frequent  than  the  drug  habit 
is  the  drink  habit. 

The  tramp  class  has  different  types  of  predatory 
individuals  and  petty  or  even  major  offenders: 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


103 


The  Gun  is  a  man  who  might  be  termed  a  first-class  crook. 
He  is  usually  a  man  who  is  living  in  the  tramp  class  to  avoid 
apprehension.  He  may  be  a  robber  or  a  burglar. 

The  Jack  Roller  is  a  tramp  who  robs  a  fellow-tramp  while  he 
is  drunk  or  asleep.  There  is  a  type  of  “Jack”  who  operates 
among  the  men  going  to  and  from  the  harvests.  He  may  hold 
them  up  in  a  box  car  with  a  gun  or  in  some  dark  alley.  He  is 
usually  called  a  Hi-Jack. 

Among  other  types  of  tramps  are: 

The  Mission  Stiff  who  preys  upon  the  missions.  He  will 
often  submit  to  being  converted  for  his  bed  and  board. 

The  Grafter  is  frequently  a  man  who  is  able  to  exploit  the 
private  and  public  charity  organizations,  or  the  fraternal 
organizations. 

The  Bad  Actor  is  a  man  who  has  become  a  nuisance  to  his 
people  and  they  pay  him  money  provided  he  does  not  show  him¬ 
self  in  his  home  town. 

The  Jungle  Buzzard  is  a  tramp  who  lives  in  the  jungles  from 
what  he  can  beg.  He  will  wash  the  pots  and  kettles  for  the 
privilege  of  eating  what  is  left  in  them. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  abnormal  sex  relations 
there  are  several  types  of  tramps: 

A  Punk  is  a  boy  who  travels  about  the  country  with  a  man 
known  as  a  jocker. 

A  jocker  is  a  man  who  exploits  boys;  that  is,  he  either 
exploits  their  sex  or  he  has  them  steal  or  beg  for  him  or  both. 
The  term  “wolf”  is  often  used  synonymously  with  jocker. 

Fairies  or  Fags  are  men  or  boys  who  exploit  sex  for  profit. 

From  the  economic  standpoint,  migratory  workers 
are  employables  and  unemployables.  Between  the 
extremes  there  are  individuals  of  every  shade  of 
employability.  The  ability  of  a  man  to  support 
himself  is  presumed  to  be  related  to  his  ability  and 
to  his  opportunity  to  work.  The  tramp  problem  has 
been  interpreted  first  of  all  as  an  unemployment 


104 


THE  HOBO 


problem,  but  this  does  not  take  account  of  the 
unemployables. 

First  of  all,  there  are  the  physically  handicapped, 
the  crippled,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  and  the  aged,  and 
many  who  are  too  fat  or  too  puny  or  too  sickly  to 
do  heavy  manual  work.  Perhaps  a  half  of  the  whole 
group  in  a  city  like  Chicago  are  physically  handi¬ 
capped  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 

Second,  the  psychopathic  types  include  many 
irresponsible  and  undependable  persons  found  in  the 
population  of  Hobohemia.  These  either  cannot  hold 
a  job,  or  do  not  care  to;  they  have  other  ideals. 
They  could,  no  doubt,  do  some  sort  of  work  but 
most  of  them  would  have  to  be  supervised. 

To  what  degree  homeless  men  are  employable,  to 
what  degree  some  of  them  are  partially  employable, 
and  to  what  extent  the  whole  group  is  unemployable 
is  a  question  that  cannot  be  finally  answered.1 

The  problem  of  the  homeless  men  is  variously 
interpreted.  The  courts  and  the  police  are  interested 
in  them  as  offenders.  As  offenders,  they  are  gener¬ 
ally  recidivists;  to  the  social  worker  and  the  mission¬ 
ary  they  represent  a  body  of  men  who  have  no 
purpose  or  direction. 

One  mission  worker  says: 

A  few  of  them  can  hold  their  own.  They  manage  to  work 
most  of  the  time  and  pay  their  way,  but  most  of  them  are  “  broke” 
some  of  the  time  and  some  of  them  are  without  money  all  the 
time.  They  are  always  making  resolutions  and  never  keeping 
them.  They  don’t  seem  to  have  any  stiffening  in  their  backbone. 

However  we  may  classify  this  group,  the  fact 
remains  that  we  have  here  a  great  body  of  persons, 

1  The  unemployables  are  a  more  or  less  permanent  class  and  do  not  come 
and  go  with  the  seasons  as  do  the  employables.  Able-bodied  employables  are 
an  effect  of  economic  depression. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


105 


probably  more  than  a  million  in  the  United  States,1 
and  that  they  furnish  a  problem  that  seems  to  be 
ever  present.  It  is,  as  we  shall  see  later,  a  great 
heterogeneous  group,  unorganized  and  incapable  of 
being  organized.  They  have  been  gathered  from 
every  walk  of  life  and  for  a  thousand  different  reasons 
find  themselves  in  this  class.  There  are  restless  and 
normal  boys  and  young  men  who  are  out  in  the  world 
for  adventure  and  whose  stay  in  the  class  is  more  or 
less  temporary;  there  are  able-bodied  men  of  more 
mature  age  who  are  either  wholly  self-supporting  or 
are  self-supporting  most  of  the  time;  and  there  are 
old  men  who  are  too  aged  and  infirm  to  work  and 
too  proud  to  surrender  themselves  to  an  institution. 
There  are  the  physically  incapacitated  and  the  men¬ 
tally  inadequate  who  are  more  or  less  dependent  and 
are  likely  to  continue  so,  and  there  are  many  types 
of  persons  who  are  the  victims  of  lingering  diseases 
or  who  are  addicted  to  drink  or  drugs  and  are  not 
able  to  hold  their  own.  All  these  are  making  the 
best  struggle  that  their  wits,  their  strength,  and  their 
opportunities  permit  to  get  a  living.  Some  of  them 
are  in  the  group  by  choice  and  have  their  minds 
clearly  made  up  to  climb  out,  others  hope  to  get  out 
and  strive  to  but  never  will,  and  yet  others  never 
have  any  such  visions. 

RELATIVE  NUMBERS  OF  DIFFERENT  TYPES 

An  estimate  has  already  been  made  that  the 
number  of  homeless  men  in  Chicago  range  from 
30,000  in  the  summer  to  60,000  in  the  winter,  reach- 

1  Estimates  vary;  Lescohier  (Commons,  Trade  Unionism  and  Labor 
Problems ,  133)  gives  the  number  as  “more  than  half  a  million  men,”  while 
Speek  {Annals  of  the  American  Academy,  1917)  refers  to  estimates  that  go  as 
high  as  five  million. 


106 


THE  HOBO 


mg  75,000  in  periods  of  unemployment.  Any  at¬ 
tempt  to  state  the  numbers  of  the  different  types 
of  homeless  men  can  be  little  more  than  a  guess. 
The  difficulty  is  the  greater  because  individuals  are 
continually  passing  from  one  group  into  another 
group.  One  man  in  his  lifetime  may  perchance  have 
been,  in  turn,  seasonal  laborer,  hobo,  tramp,  home 
guard,  and  bum. 

The  public  generally  fails  to  distinguish  between 
these  types.  The  group  of  bums,  beggars,  and 
petty  thieves,  often  mistakenly  thought  of  as  repre¬ 
sentative  of  the  homeless  men's  group,  probably  does 
not  exceed  in  Chicago  a  total  number  of  2,500.  The 
number  of  the  home-guard  type,  the  stationary 
casual  worker,  has  been  placed  at  30,000,  the  sum¬ 
mer  population  of  Hobohemia  on  the  basis  of  the 
number  of  permanent  guests  at  lodging-house  and 
hotel,  and  the  number  of  registered  voters  among 
the  homeless  men.1  The  number  of  tramps  who  visit 
Chicago  each  year  can  only  be  roughly  estimated  at 
1 50,000/  or  an  average  of  perhaps  5,000  at  any  given 
time.  The  migratory  worker,  including  both  the 
seasonal  laborer  and  the  hobo,  number  on  the  aver¬ 
age  around  10,000  and  reach  a  total  of  300,000  or 
more  persons  who  come  to  Chicago  for  the  winter 
or  to  secure  a  shipment  to  work  outside  the  city. 
In  periods  of  economic  depression  the  numbers  of 
homeless  men  in  Hobohemia  are  swollen  with  men 
out  of  work,  the  majority  of  whom  for  the  first  time 
have  been  turned  adrift  on  the  “main  stem." 

1  See  p.  14  n. 

2  These  numbers  indicate  the  number  of  visits  rather  than  the  number  of 
separate  individuals  since  a  certain  proportion  of  men  visit  Chicago  two  or 
more  times  during  the  year. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WORK 


THE  occupations  that  select  out  of  the  foot-loose 
males  in  our  population  the  most  restless  types 

are: 

i.  Agriculture  or  crop  moving. — When  the  crops 
are  ready  to  be  garnered  labor  must  be  imported  at 
any  cost.  The  leading  crops  in  these  seasonal  de¬ 
mands  are  grain  harvesting,  corn  shucking,  fruit  pick¬ 
ing,  potato  digging,  beet  topping,  cotton  picking, 
hop  picking,  etc.  If  a  man  follows  the  wheat  harvest, 
he  may  be  occupied  from  the  middle  of  June  when  the 
crop  is  ready  in  Oklahoma  until  November  or  Decem¬ 
ber  when  the  season  ends  with  threshing  in  North 
Dakota  and  Canada.  Workers  who  pick  fruit  may 
remain  in  one  locality  and  have  some  kind  of  fruit 
always  coming  on. 

2.  Building  and  construction  work . — Next  to  crop 
moving  the  building  trades  and  construction  jobs 
make  the  heaviest  seasonal  demands  upon  the  labor 
market.  Railroad  construction,  ditch  digging,  and 
similar  occupations  are  generally  discontinued  during 
the  winter.  Carpentry,  masonry,  brick  and  con¬ 
crete  work  are  only  carried  on  with  reduced  numbers 
of  men  through  the  cold  months. 

3.  Fishing. — Salmon  fishing  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
and  oyster  fishing  on  the  Atlantic  Coast  are  also 
seasonal  industries.  In  the  fishing  industry,  as  in 
other  seasonal  occupations,  there  is  a  demand  for 
experienced  workers  that  cannot  always  be  had  when 
most  needed. 

4.  Sheep  shearing. — Sheep  shearing  is  a  skilled 
trade.  Thousands  of  men  are  needed  to  harvest  the 


108 


THE  HOBO 


wool  crop  each  year  and  these  men  are  forced  to 
become  migratory.  The  shearing  season,  like  the 
harvest,  moves  from  border  to  border  during  a  period 
of  three  or  four  months.  In  the  Southwest  the  sheep 
are  sometimes  clipped  twice  a  year.  The  shearing 
jobs  are  usually  short  but  lucrative. 

5.  Ice  harvesting . — Formerly  the  ice  harvest  fur¬ 
nished  employment  to  an  army  of  men  for  two 
months  or  more  during  the  winter.  Ice-manufactur¬ 
ing  plants  have  diminished  the  demand  for  natural 
ice,  though  ice  cutting  still  furnishes  winter  jobs  for 
many  men. 

6.  Lumbering . — Working  in  the  lumber  woods  and 
in  the  saw  mills  is  not  now  so  much  of  a  seasonal  job 
as  it  was  when  the  industry  centered  around  the 
Great  Lakes.  The  industry  has  gone  West  or  over 
the  border  into  Canada,  where,  with  the  longer 
winter  season  and  improved  facilities,  it  operates 
almost  all  year.  It  is  not  necessary  in  Washington, 
Oregon,  and  California  to  wait  for  the  snow  to  begin 
work  in  the  woods  as  in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  in 
the  early  days. 

Certain  occupations  not  essentially  seasonal  have 
a  tendency  to  contribute  to  migrancy.  In  many 
metal  mines  a  man’s  health  will  not  permit  him  to 
work  long.  He  leaves  and  goes  into  some  other 
mine  in  the  same  or  a  different  district  where  the 
danger  is  not  present.  A  miner  tends  to  become  a 
migrant  for  the  sake  of  his  health.  There  are  other 
industries  in  which  hazards  exist  that  force  workers 
to  become  transient. 

The  American  hobo  has  been  a  great  pioneer. 
New  mining  camps,  oil  booms,  the  building  of  a 
town  in  a  few  weeks,  or  any  mushroom  development 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


109 


utilizes  a  great  many  transient  workers.  After  a 
flood,  a  fire,  or  an  earthquake,  there  is  a  great 
demand  for  labor.  The  migratory  worker  is  always 
ready  to  respond.  It  is  his  life,  in  which  he  finds 
variety  and  experience  and,  last  but  not  least,  some¬ 
thing  to  talk  about. 

JOB  HUNTING  AMONG  THE  CASUAL  WORKERS 

In  seasonal  and  casual  work,  as  in  all  types  of 
industry,  a  process  of  selection  takes  place.  Great 
numbers  of  men  are  attracted  into  seasonal  occupa¬ 
tions  because  of  the  good  wages  offered.  But  only 
those  remain  who  are  content  to  migrate  from  one 
locality  to  another  in  response  to  the  demands  for 
labor.  The  average  man  soon  realizes  that  in  the 
course  of  a  year  seasonal  work  does  not  pay  even  if 
fabulous  wages  are  received  for  short-lived  jobs. 
The  man  who  continues  as  a  migratory  worker  is 
likely,  therefore,  to  be  a  person  who  is  either  unable 
to  find  or  unable  to  hold  a  permanent  job.  Some 
workers  become  restless  after  a  few  weeks  or  months 
in  one  place.  Seasonal  and  casual  work  seems  to 
have  selected  out  these  restless  types  and  made  hobos 
of  them. 

Migratory  workers  have  a  certain  body  of  tradi¬ 
tions:  they  know  how  to  get  work;  what  kind  of 
work  to  look  for;  when  to  look  for  certain  kinds  of 
work,  and  where  certain  work  may  be  found.  They 
fall  in  with  the  seasonal  migration  of  workers  and 
drift  into  certain  localities  to  do  certain  jobs;  to  the 
potato  fields,  the  fruit  picking,  the  wheat  harvest. 

The  hobo  worker  finds  his  way  to  out-of-town 
jobs  more  often  than  to  city  work.  Upon  leaving  an 
out-of-town  job  he  is  likely  to  return  to  the  city  in 


110 


THE  HOBO 


order  to  locate  another  job  out  of  the  city  or  even  out 
of  the  state.  This  tendency  of  the  foot-loose  worker 
to  drift  into  the  city  has  turned  the  attention  of  the 
employer  to  the  city  whenever  he  needed  help.  Both 
the  worker  and  the  employer  have  been  attracted  to 
the  city  in  an  effort  to  solve  their  labor  difficulties. 
Intermediate  agencies  spring  up  to  bring  together  the 
jobless  man  and  the  man  with  jobs  to  offer.  Employ¬ 
ment  agents,  congregating  in  the  Hobohemian  sec¬ 
tions  of  the  city,  convert  those  areas  into  labor 
markets. 

Chicago  is  probably  the  greatest  labor  exchange 
for  the  migratory  worker  in  the  United  States,  if 
not  in  the  world.  Probably  no  other  city  furnishes 
more  men  for  railroad  work.  In  days  past,  when  so 
many  new  railroads  were  being  built,  there  were 
great  demands  for  men  in  the  West,  and  it  was  not 
uncommon  to  get  a  1,000-mile  shipment  any  time 
in  the  year.  One  is  still  able  to  secure  free  ship¬ 
ments  of  from  400  to  600  miles. 

There  are  more  than  200  private  employment  agen¬ 
cies  in  Chicago.  There  were,  on  August  14,  1922,  39 
licensed  private  agencies  of  the  type  patronized  by 
the  homeless  man.  Eighteen  of  these  were  on  Canal 
Street,  thirteen  were  on  West  Madison  Street,  and 
the  rest  in  close  proximity  to  that  area.  In  addition 
to  these  there  are  many  agencies  not  operating  on  a 
commission  basis  which  hire  men  for  a  private  cor¬ 
poration  and  are  maintained  by  that  corporation. 
As  such  they  are  not  licensed  nor  does  the  law  affect 
them. 

No  figures  are  at  hand  to  show  how  many  men 
these  private  agencies  place  during  the  year.  Their 
records  are  not  merely  inadequate;  they  are  a  joke. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


111 


In  fact,  few  of  them  keep  records  that  list  all  appli¬ 
cants,  all  men  placed,  jobs  registered,  etc.,  though  the 
state  law  definitely  declares  that  this  must  be  done. 

The  inclusion  of  the  non-fee-collecting  agencies 
will  raise  the  number  from  39  to  over  50.  If  each 
agency  sends  out,  at  a  low  estimate,  10  men  a  day, 
and  if  each  operates  300  days  a  year,  a  total  of  150,000 
men  are  placed  in  jobs  annually.  Over  57,000  men 
in  1921-22  were  placed  by  the  free  employment 
agency.  Many  of  these  homeless  men  have  access  to 
other  private  agencies  than  those  situated  on  the 
“stem,”  and  often  they  prefer  to  go  to  such  agencies. 
If  100  of  these  agencies  furnished  jobs  to  2  homeless 
men  a  day  for  300  days  a  year,  we  would  have  an 
additional  60,000.  About  250,000  homeless  men 
pass  through  the  Chicago  employment  agencies 
every  year. 

Employment  agencies  fall  into  two  classes — the 
public,  or  those  operated  by  the  federal  govern¬ 
ment,  the  state,  or  the  municipality  and  those 
conducted  under  private  management.  The  private 
agency  is  the  pioneer.  It  was  not  only  the  outgrowth 
of  a  certain  condition  in  the  labor  market  but  it  was 
the  reason  for  the  creation  of  the  public  employment 
bureau. 

PRIVATE  EMPLOYMENT  AGENCIES 

The  idea  is  becoming  general  that  employment 
offices  have  a  social  responsibility.  They  have  duties 
to  the  applicants,  to  the  employers,  and  to  the  public 
that  are  more  than  economic;  more  than  a  business  of 
selling  jobs  to  jobless  men.  It  is  a  responsibility 
that  is  not  imposed  upon  the  ordinary  business  man 
and  that  has  no  prominent  place  in  the  code  of  busi¬ 
ness  ethics. 


112 


THE  HOBO 


The  private  employment  agencies  that  cater  to 
the  homeless  men  are  chiefly  located  on  the  West 
Side.  The  1919-20  Report  of  the  Illinois  Department 
of  Labor 1  shows  that  during  that  period  there  were 
295  licensed  private  employment  agencies  in  Chicago. 
As  we  noted  above,  about  fifty  of  these  serve  the 
homeless  men.  Most  of  these  fifty  agencies  are 
located  along  Canal  Street  opposite  the  Union 
Depot,  or  along  Madison  Street  between  the  Chicago 
River  and  Halsted  Street.  Some  of  these  operate 
the  year  round,  while  others  come  and  go  with  the 
seasons,  opening  up  in  prosperous  times  and  going 
out  of  existence  when  the  demand  for  labor  falls. 

A  few  of  the  private  agencies  are  fairly  well 
equipped;  that  is,  they  have  desks,  counters,  tele¬ 
phone,  chairs  or  benches,  and  a  waiting-room  which 
in  cold  weather  is  kept  warm  for  the  patrons. 
Others,  the  majority,  have  very  little  equipment, 
perhaps  a  chair  and  a  table  in  a  single,  bare  room. 
They  keep  no  books  other  than  what  they  carry  in 
their  pockets.  For  the  average  small  labor  agent  an 
office  is  only  used  as  a  place  to  hang  the  license.  He 
gets  his  patrons  by  standing  on  the  street  and  solicit¬ 
ing.  The  other  private  agents  are  playing  the  role 
of  man  catcher,  and  he  must  do  the  same  if  he  would 
succeed. 

There  are  two  types  of  private  labor  agencies — 
the  commission  agencies,  and  the  boarding  or  com¬ 
missary  agencies.  The  commission  agency  is  the 
pioneer  job-selling  institution  which  survives  by 
charging  a  fee  to  the  employer  who  seeks  workers,  or 
by  charging  a  fee  to  the  applicants,  or  by  charging 
both.  Usually  they  charge  both  the  applicant  and 

xp.  51. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


113 


the  employer,  and  formerly  their  prices  were  gov¬ 
erned  by  the  demand  for  jobs,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
for  workers,  on  the  other.  (If  the  competition  is  for 

workers  they  can  raise  the  price  charged  the 

employer.  If  jobs  are  scarce  they  can  raise  the 

price  charged  the  applicant.)  The  boarding  and 

commissary  agency  charge  no  fee  for  the  job.  Their 
profit  is  made  in  keeping  the  boarding-house  for  the 
men  they  hire. 

In  the  past  it  was  proverbial  that  better  shipments 
could  be  had  from  the  private  agencies  in  Chicago 
than  from  any  other  city.  A  few  years  ago  the 
Chicago  agencies  were  shipping  men  to  all  the  big 
jobs  within  a  radius  of  from  500  to  1,000  miles,  and 
men  would  come  to  Chicago  from  500  to  1,000  miles 
in  one  direction  to  be  sent  by  the  agencies  to  work  on 
some  job  equally  as  far  in  another  direction.  These 
long-distance  interstate  shipments  have  been  the 
chief  factor  in  the  prosperity  of  the  private  agencies. 
High  prices  were  charged  for  the  long  shipments  but 
the  men  were  willing  to  pay  them  whether  the  job 
was  good  or  not  in  order  to  secure  free  transporta¬ 
tion  west  or  south  or  east.  The  long  shipments  are 
not  so  numerous  at  present  and  the  high  fees  are  no 
longer  permitted. 

The  charge  sometimes  made  that  the  private  agencies  are 
gruff  and  discourteous  would  seem  well  founded  if  one  failed  to 
consider  the  behavior  of  homeless  men  on  the  street.  These 
men  would  not  pass  the  same  judgment.  They  are  used  to 
speaking  roughly  to  each  other.  They  take  and  give  hard 
blows  in  their  dealings  with  the  “labor  shark.”  Many  men  can 
get  along  much  better  with  the  blunt  and  unceremonious  private 
agent  than  with  the  sleek,  precise,  courteous,  and  business-like 
officials  in  the  public  agencies.  Their  preference  for  the  private 
agent  is  not  for  his  gruffness  or  the  ease  with  which  they  may 


114 


THE  HOBO 


approach  him.  It  is  mainly  because  he  serves  them  better. 
They  hate  him  for  his  fees  but  he  gets  the  jobs  they  want. 

The  migratory  worker  resents  the  idea  of  being 
obliged  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  securing  work.  In 
every  program  that  the  hobo  has  advocated  to  change 
society  he  has  made  reference  to  the  “labor  shark.” 
The  hobo  worker  is  never  disappointed  to  find  that 
the  job  has  been  misrepresented  by  the  agency.  Nor 
is  the  agency  surprised  if  the  applicant  does  not  go 
to  work  when  he  arrives  on  the  job. 

PUBLIC  EMPLOYMENT  AGENCIES 

The  state  has  been  forced  into  the  employment 
business  because  of  the  problems  presented  by  private 
agencies.  The  public  employment  agency  in  Chi¬ 
cago  has  not  displaced  or  even  seriously  affected  the 
private  employment  agency.  It  is  still  only  in  the 
experimental  stage,  a  laboratory  in  which  the  employ¬ 
ment  problem  may  be  studied. 

There  are  three  public  free  employment  offices  in 
Chicago:  one  at  1 1 6  North  Dearborn  for  skilled 
workers,  one  at  105  South  Jefferson  Street  for  un¬ 
skilled  workers,  and  one  at  344  East  Thirty-fifth 
Street,  chiefly  for  Negro  workers.  The  homeless 
man  is  chiefly  interested  in  the  Federal  and  State 
Labor  Exchange  located  at  105  South  Jefferson  Street. 
However,  the  central  office  on  Dearborn  Street,  which 
specializes  in  skilled  and  permanent  employment,  at¬ 
tracts  two  or  three  hundred  homeless  men  a  day, 
mainly  from  South  State  Street.  This  office  is  care¬ 
ful  not  to  send  out  on  jobs  “dead  line  men.” 

By'  ‘dead  line  men”  are  meant  men  who  live  on  Madison 
west  of  Canal  Street.  Men  “living”  on  Clark,  State,  and 
Dearborn  streets  are  more  reliable  and  stand  a  better  chance 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


115 


than  the  “dead  line  men”  to  get  jobs.  The  firms  that  place 
their  demand  for  help  with  the  Dearborn  Street  bureau  generally 
want  references,  showing  place  of  residence  and  name  of  former 
employer.  Such  firms  will  not  consider  a  West  Madison  Street 
man.  The  clerks  sometimes  advise  an  applicant  to  change  his 
address  to  that  of  some  relative  in  case  the  applicant  makes  a 
favorable  impression  with  the  clerk.  If  a  man  looks  and  speaks 
intelligently  but  is  too  ragged  and  dirty  to  send  out  on  a  job,  the 
suggestion  is  sometimes  made  to  clean  up  and  spruce  up  a  bit. 
The  transformation  in  some  cases  is  astonishing.1 

Probably  four  or  five  times  as  many  men  are 
placed  by  the  private  as  by  the  public  employment 
agencies.  It  seems  paradoxical  that  the  migratory 
worker  should  patronize  the  private  labor  agent 
whom  he  regards  as  an  exploiter  and  a  parasite  rather 
than  the  free  employment  office,  yet  there  are  good 
reasons  for  his  behavior. 

In  the  first  place,  the  office  of  the  public  agency, 
although  little  more  than  a  block  away,  is  not  on  the 
“main  stem/’  Strangers  in  the  city  find  their  way 
to  the  “slave  market”  without  difficulty  but  may 
never  become  aware  of  the  existence  of  the  free 
employment  office.  A  migratory  worker  likes  to  do 
a  little  “window  shopping”  before  he  takes  a  job. 
He  likes  to  go  along  the  streets  reading  the  red  or 
blue  or  yellow  placards  announcing  jobs  and  ship¬ 
ments  until  he  has  made  up  his  mind.  The  signs  and 
scribbled  windows  of  the  private  agency  are  maneu¬ 
vers  of  salesmanship.  The  public  agency  has  no 
such  signs  on  the  outside.  The  men  must  go  inside 
to  see  the  blackboard  upon  which  the  jobs  are  written. 

Further,  the  public  agency  is  in  duty  bound,  as 
the  private  agency  is  not,  to  keep  records  and  to  get 
certain  information  from  the  workers  who  apply  for 

1  Koster,  unpublished  manuscript,  pp.  17-18. 


116 


THE  HOBO 


jobs,  and  from  the  employers  as  well.  The  men  who 
patronize  these  agencies  dislike  the  “red  tape”  of  the 
public  agency;  they  are  often  unwilling  to  be  cata¬ 
logued  and  given  a  number,  or  go  through  the  other 
formalities  so  necessary  for  efficiency.  The  decisive 
reason  why  the  migratory  worker  patronizes  the 
private  agency  is  because  it  carries  a  better  class,  of 
jobs.  Jobs  involving  interstate  shipments  are  usu¬ 
ally  given  to  the  private  agencies,  partly  because  it 
is  customary,  and  partly  because  they  know  how  to 
solicit  such  contracts  for  labor.  It  is  difficult  for  a 
man  to  get  an  out-of-state  job  in  the  public  agency 
since  it  is  more  or  less  local  in  its  jurisdiction.  The 
private  agencies  attract  the  hobos  also  because  they 
make  no  effort  to  see  that  he  goes  to  work  after  he 
has  been  sent.  Indeed,  it  is  to  their  advantage  if  he 
does  not  go  to  work,  for  then  they  have  the  chance 
to  send  another  man.  The  public  agency  makes  an 
effort  to  “follow  up”  the  applicants  and  to  “keep 
tab”  on  them.  The  hobo  worker  shies  from  such 
solicitous  treatment. 

Mr.  J.  J.  Kenna,  chief  inspector  of  private  employ¬ 
ment  agencies,  believes  that  the  private  agencies 
should  be  obliged  to  do  likewise.  He  wrote  in  his 
report  to  the  State  Department  of  Labor  in  1920: 

Another  question  that  might  be  given  consideration  is  the 
subject  of  public  information  pertaining  to  the  business  of  private 
employment  agencies  for  the  instruction  of  those  interested  in 
labor  problems  and  legislation,  namely: 

A  law  compelling  the  agencies  to  furnish  the  State  Department 
of  Labor  with  a  monthly  report  of  the  number  of  all  applicants 
applying  for  positions,  their  ages,  etc.,  and  also  the  number  of  per¬ 
sons  brought  into  the  State  and  sent  out  of  the  State  and  to  where 
sent,  the  kind  of  employment  for  which  they  were  engaged,  etc.1 

1  Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of  Labor  (1920),  p.  50. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


117 


Nothing  would  do  more  for  efficiency  in  the 
employment  office  business  than  to  compel  the 
private  agencies  to  keep  as  efficient  records  as  the 
public  bureau.  The  spirit  of  competition  so  prev¬ 
alent  in  the  private  agencies  is  not  present  in  the 
public  labor  bureau.  The  public  agency  stands 
complacently  on  the  side,  never  entering  the  struggle 
to  get  jobs  and  men  together.  It  is  too  much  of  an 
office  and  too  little  of  an  agency. 

The  public  and  private  agencies  operate  upon 
diametrically  opposing  assumptions.  The  assump¬ 
tion  of  the  public  agency  is  that  the  man  once 
placed  will  remain  so  long  as  the  job  lasts,  and  a 
large  proportion  of  their  jobs,  especially  in  the  Dear¬ 
born  Street  office,  are  for  “long  stake”  men.  A 
man’s  record,  his  qualifications,  are  taken  and  he 
is  sent  out  to  the  job  with  the  notion  that  he  will 
work  steady.  The  private  agencies,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  assume  that  few  of  these  men  will  remain 
long  on  the  job;  that  they  may  stay  ten  days  or  two 
weeks  and  seldom  longer  than  three  months.  The 
public  agency  with  an  eye  to  permanency  may  be 
expected  to  move  slowly  in  placing  men  on  jobs, 
whereas  the  private  agency  will  send  anyone  to  any 
job  that  he  says  he  can  do  and  that  he  is  willing  to 
pay  for. 


THE  CASUALIZATION  OF  LABOR 

The  casualization  of  labor,  in  spite  of  its  concern 
to  place  men  permanently,  has  a  tendency  to  attract 
“home  guards,”  i.e.,  men  who  do  not  care  to  leave 
the  city  and  yet  do  not  want  steady  work.  They 
may  work  from  a  day  to  a  week,  then  they  return 
for  another  job. 


118 


THE  HOBO 


The  following  are  a  few  of  the  names  taken  at 
random  from  a  list  of  men  who  had  been  given  ten  or 
more  jobs  by  the  Federal  and  State  Labor  Exchange 
between  March  i,  1922,  and  August  15,  1922  (five 
and  one-half  months) : 


Number 

Jobs 

Wm.  Mitchell . 

.  G735 

20 

Jas.  Perry . 

.  5,878 

IO 

Tony  Felk . 

.  i,i95 

IO 

Jas.  Griffin . 

.  5, 811 

12 

F.  Mullen . 

.  5,o69 

21 

Ed.  Moorhead . 

.  635 

20 

Fred  Wagoner . 

.  5,334 

15 

Jas.  Purl . 

.  682 

l6 

F.  A.  Murlin . 

.  5,39° 

J3 

W.  Galvin . 

....  628 

18 

A.  Myers . 

....  3,700 

*7 

W.  Slavis . 

....  2,202 

J9 

P.  Myshowi . 

....  2,408 

15 

C.  Carroll . 

....  4, 1742 

1 6 

Jas.  Lewis . 

....  3,872 

16 

The  records  show  hundreds  of  similar  instances. 
Some  men  have  been  sent  to  as  many  as  forty  or 
fifty  jobs  during  a  period  of  six  months  and  few 
stayed  with  a  job  more  than  a  month  or  two. 

'  John  M.  secured  26  jobs  from  the  Free  Employment  Bureau 
in  less  than  three  months  between  May  4  and  July  26.  The 
following  is  the  list  of  employers  with  the  dates  of  employment:1 


1.  Morris  and  Co . May  4 

2.  Ravina  Nursery . May  6 

3.  Edison  Co . May  10 

4.  Ed  Katzinger . May  18 

5.  New  Era  Coal  Co . May  24 

6.  Ravina  Nursery . May  26 


1  E.  H.  Koster,  unpublished  notes,  pp.  42-43. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS  119 

7.  Home  Fuel  Co . May  27 

8.  Morris  and  Co . May  31 

9.  Ill.  Bell  Telephone  Co . June  8 

10.  Flazman  Iron  Co . June  12 

11.  Greenpoint  Beef  Co . June  13 

12.  Astrid  Rosing  Co . June  14 

13.  Armstrong  Paint  Co . June  21 

14.  Const.  Mattress  Co . June  22 

15.  Armour  Co . June  26 

16.  Oxweld  Acetylene  Co . June  27 

17.  Oxweld  Acetylene  Co . June  29 

18.  Wisconsin  Lime  Co . June  30 

19.  American  Express  Co . July  1 

20.  Wisconsin  Lime  Co . July  5 

21.  Oxweld  Acetylene  Co . July  10 

22.  Oxweld  Acetylene  Co . July  11 

23.  Edison  Co . July  15 

24.  Low  Pipe  Co . July  24 

25.  International  Har.  Co . July  25 

26.  J.  A.  Ross . July  26 


John  M.  is  a  casual  laborer.  He  is  one  of  a  type 
that  works  by  the  day,  is  paid  by  the  day,  and  lives 
by  the  day.  Don.  D.  Lescohier  has  described  the 
characteristics  of  the  casual  workers: 

A  man  becomes  a  casual  when  he  acquires  the  casual  state  of 
mind.  The  extreme  type  of  casual  never  seeks  more  than  a 
day’s  work.  He  lives  strictly  to  the  rule,  one  day  at  a  time. 
If  you  ask  him  why  he  does  not  take  a  steady  job,  he  will  tell 
you  that  he  would  like  to,  but  that  he  hasn’t  money  enough  to 
enable  him  to  live  until  pay-day,  and  no  one  will  give  him  credit. 
If  you  offer  to  advance  his  board  until  pay-day,  he  will  accept 
your  offer  and  accept  the  job  you  offer  him,  but  he  will  not  show 
up  on  the  job,  or  else  will  quit  at  the  end  of  the  first  day.  He  has 
acquired  a  standard  or  scale  of  work  and  life  that  makes  it 
almost  impossible  for  him  to  restore  himself  to  steady  employ¬ 
ment.  He  lacks  the  desire,  the  will-power,  self-control,  ambition, 
and  habits  of  industry  which  are  essential  to  it.1 


1  Lescohier,  The  Labor  Market ,  p.  264. 


120 


THE  HOBO 


The  demoralizing  effect  of  a  period  of  unemploy¬ 
ment  upon  the  migratory  and  casual  worker  is  indi¬ 
cated  in  an  interview  given  to  the  investigator  by 
Mr.  Charles  J.  Boyd,  general  superintendent  of  the 
Illinois  Free  Employment  Offices  in  Chicago. 

Depending  on  one’s  point  of  view,  the  homeless  man,  owing 
to  the  serious  industrial  depression  during  the  winter  of  1921- 
1922  had  remarkable  success  in  begging  or  panhandling.  The 
spirit  of  the  public  during  the  depression  was  to  help  the  unem¬ 
ployed  man  and  advantage  of  this  situation  was  not  lost  sight 
of  by  the  hobo  who  worked  on  the  sympathy  of  the  public. 
With  the  approach  of  summer  and  improved  industrial  condi¬ 
tions,  the  hobo  continued  to  make  a  living  in  other  ways  than 
by  working  for  it.  There  seems  to  be  an  understanding  among 
this  class  of  men  not  to  work  for  less  than  50c  an  hour,  and 
they  are  loath  to  accept  steady  employment  at  35c  to  37^0  hour 
when  they  can  do  temporary  work,  and  work  at  a  different  job 
every  day,  or  any  day  one  pleases,  at  45c  to  50c  an  hour.  The 
hobo  is  reluctant  to  work  in  foundries  or  steel  mills.  He  likes 
the  open  and  when  winter  is  past,  the  hobo,  with  few  exceptions, 
refuses  inside  work. 

The  hobos  of  today  are  made  up  of  young  men,  ranging  in 
ages  from  18  to  35  years.  They  form  in  groups  of  six  or  seven, 
camp  in  the  “brush”  and  send  a  different  one  of  their  group  out 
each  day  to  panhandle  in  the  town  or  village  near  which  they 
may  be  camping.  Then  too,  these  men  have  very  decided 
views  on  the  Volstead  law,  before  the  enactment  of  which  the 
hobo  felt  he  had  some  inducement  to  work,  for  he  liked  his 
beer,  if  it  was  only  ij  per  cent,  and  he  did  not  know  it.  But 
since  prohibition,  his  attitude  seems  to  be  “Why  should  I  work 
any  more  than  I  really  have  to?”  or  in  other  words,  more  than 
to  get  enough  for  food  and  a  place  to  sleep.1 

The  hobo  is  not  unfamiliar  with  strike  jobs. 
Corporations,  when  forced  to  the  wall  in  a  labor 
crisis,  often  come  to  the  “stem”  for  their  strike¬ 
breakers.  By  offering  alluring  wages  and  the  assur- 

1  From  the  unpublished  notes  of  an  interview  by  E.  H.  Koster. 


TYPES  OF  HOBOS 


121 


ance  of  security,  they  are  able  to  attract  from  ranks 
of  even  the  casual  workers  enough  men  to  keep  the 
plants  running.  Labor  agencies  of  this  kind  are 
not  popular  on  the  “stem”;  neither  are  the  men 
who  hire  out  as  strike-breakers.  But  in  spite  of  this 
stigma  they  survive  as  during  the  railroad  strike 
in  the  summer  of  1922.  These  railroad  agencies 
crowded  even  to  the  heart  of  the  Madison  Street 
mart  and  eventually  forced  the  private  agencies  to 
deal  in  strike  jobs. 

Strike-breakers  or  “scabs”  are  of  four  varieties: 
(1)  men  who  are  innocently  attracted  to  the  job 
(it  is  generally  charged  that  this  was  the  case  in  the 
Herrin  affair);  (2)  men  who  are  “too  proud  to  beg 
and  too  honest  to  steal”;  (3)  men  who  have  a  grudge 
against  some  striking  union,  or  against  organized 
labor  in  general;  and  (4)  men  who  hire  out  as 
bona  fide  workers  but  really  “bore  from  within” 
and  in  the  language  of  the  radical  “work  sabotage.” 

A  NATIONAL  PROBLEM 

All  the  problems  of  the  homeless  man  go  back  in 
one  way  or  another  to  the  conditions  of  his  work. 
The  irregularity  of  his  employment  is  reflected  in  the 
irregularity  of  all  phases  of  his  existence.  To  deal 
with  him  even  as  an  individual,  society  must  deal 
also  with  the  economic  forces  which  have  formed  his 
behavior,  with  the  seasonal  and  cyclical  fluctuations 
in  industry.  This  means  that  the  problem  of  the 
homeless  man  is  not  local  but  national. 

The  establishment  during  the  war  of  the  United 
States  Employment  Service  gave  promise  of  an 
attempt  to  cope  with  the  problem  nationally.  The 
curtailment  of  this  service  since  1919  through  inade- 


122 


THE  HOBO 


quate  appropriations  has  prevented  its  functioning  on 
a  scale  which  the  situation  demands. 

The  emphasis  upon  the  development  of  a  national 
program  means  no  lack  of  recognition  of  the  service 
of  local  employment  agencies.  They  are  indispen¬ 
sable  units  in  any  effective  plan  of  nation-wide 
organization.  The  bureaus  and  branches,  in  Chi¬ 
cago,  of  the  Illinois  Free  Employment  offices  are 
now  co-operating  with  the  United  States  Employ¬ 
ment  Service. 

A  CLEARING  HOUSE  FOR  HOMELESS  MEN 

The  accumulated  experience  of  the  local  employ¬ 
ment  agencies  will  be  valuable  not  only  in  the  future 
expansion  of  the  national  employment  service,  but 
in  pointing  the  way  to  the  next  steps  to  be  taken 
locally  in  dealing  with  the  homeless  man  as  a  worker. 
The  officials  of  these  agencies  have  learned  that  the 
problem  of  adjusting  the  migratory  casual  worker  in 
industry  involves  human  nature  as  well  as  economics. 
A  conviction  is  growing  that  in  connection  with, 
or  in  addition  to,  the  public  employment  agency 
designed  to  bring  together  the  man  and  the  job, 
there  is  need  of  a  clearing  house  which  offers  medical, 
psychological,  and  sociological  diagnosis  as  a  basis  for 
vocational  guidance,  after-care  service,  and  industrial 
rehabilitation. 


PART  III 

THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


CHAPTER  IX 

HEALTH 


NO  EXTENDED  study  has  ever  been  made 
that  would  afford  an  adequate  index  for  the 
physical  fitness  of  homeless  men.  Municipal  lodging- 
houses,  jails,  hospitals,  and  other  institutions  have 
collected  certain  data.  But  such  information  is 
indicative  of  the  physical  and  mental  condition  of 
those  only  who  have  become  problems  of  charity  or 
correction.  They  do  not  represent  the  whole  group 
of  homeless  men.  However,  it  is  evident  from  these 
studies  that  a  large  proportion  ot  the  entire  group  is 
below  par  physically.  They  indicate  at  least  that 
defective  individuals  are  comparatively  numerous 
among  hobos  and  tramps. 

THE  PHYSICALLY  DEFECTIVE 

Mrs.  Alice  W.  Solenberger  found  that  two-thirds 
of  her  1,000  cases  were  either  physically  or  mentally 
defective.  Of  these,  627  men  and  boys  were  suffer¬ 
ing  from  a  total  of  722  physical  and  mental  defi¬ 


ciencies.1 

Condition  Instances 

Insanity .  52 

Feeble-mindedness .  19 

Epilepsy .  18 

Paralysis .  40 

Other  nervous  disorders .  21 

Tuberculosis .  93 

Rheumatism .  37 

Venereal  diseases .  21 

Other  infectious  diseases .  15 

Heart  disease .  14 

Disorders  of  organs  other  than  heart .  19 


1  Alice  W.  Solenberger,  One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,  p.  36. 


[125 


126 


THE  HOBO 


Condition  Instances 

Crippled,  maimed,  or  deformed;  from  birth  or 

accident .  1 68 

Rupture .  1 1 

Cancer .  6 

Blind,  including  partly  blind .  43 

Deaf,  including  partly  deaf .  14 

Defective  health  through  use  of  drugs  and  drink. ...  16 

Defective  health  from  lack  of  nourishment  and  other 

causes . 24 

Convalescent .  33 

Aged . . .  35 

All  other  diseases  and  defects .  7 

Doubtful .  16 


Total  instances .  722 

Total  number  of  different  men  in  defective 
health  or  condition .  627 


She  tells  us  that  of  the  222  more  or  less  permanently 
handicapped,  106  men  had  been  entirely  self- 
supporting  before  their  injuries  while  127  were 
entirely  dependent  after  injury. 

A  careful  study  of  100  homeless  men  made  in  the 
Municipal  Lodging  House  of  New  York  City  by 
F.  C.  Laubach  showed  the  following  defects:1 


Tubercular. . 

.  7 

Maimed . 

14 

Venereal .... 

.  26 

Malnutrition . 

13 

Bronchial. .  . 

.  4 

Poor  sight . 

9 

Feeble . 

.  14 

Poor  hearing . 

1 

Senile . 

.  16 

Impediment  of  speech 

2 

Deformed. .  . 

.  4 

Physically  sound . 

28 

Laubach’s 

100  cases  were  selected  from  more 

than 

400  men.  They  represented  the  100  who  remained 
longest  to  be  examined  (perhaps  the  100  the  least  able 
to  get  away).  He  found  28  per  cent  able-bodied 


1  F.  C.  Laubach,  Why  There  Are  Vagrants ,  p.  21. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


127 


while  Mrs.  Solenberger  reported  37 .3  per  cent  with¬ 
out  observable  defects.  That  this  per  cent  of 
defectives  is  high  for  more  unselected  groups  will  be 
shown  by  the  following  extract  from  the  report  of 
the  Municipal  Lodging  House  of  New  York  City  for 

I9I5* 

....  Fifteen  hundred  men  were  studied  by  a  staff  of  fifteen 
investigators.  At  the  same  time  a  medical  examination  of  two 
thousand  men  was  conducted  by  fifteen  medical  examiners. 
This  investigation  represented  the  first  large  attempt  in  America 
to  find  out  about  the  men  who  take  refuge  in  a  municipal  lodging 
house . 

Of  the  2,000  men  who  were  given  a  medical  examination, 
1,774,  approximately  9  out  of  every  10,  were,  according  to  the 
adjudgments  of  the  examining  physicians,  physically  able  to 
work.  Twelve  hundred  and  forty-seven,  or  62  per  cent  of  the 
total,  were  considered  physically  able  to  do  regular  hard  manual 
labor;  254,  or  18  per  cent,  to  do  medium  hard  work;  and  173, 
or  9  per  cent,  to  do  light  work  only.  Two  hundred  and  twenty- 
six,  1  out  of  every  10,  were  adjudged  physically  unable  to 
work.1 

This  investigation  showed  that  in  a  lean  year, 
when  many  men  were  out  of  work,  a  large  proportion 
of  the  lodging-house  population  is  composed  of  handi¬ 
capped  men.  The  physical  condition  of  400  tramps 
interviewed  by  the  writer  is  not  so  much  in  contra¬ 
diction  as  in  supplement  to  the  foregoing  studies.2 
Only  men  in  transit  were  tabulated.  Nearly  all  of 
them  were  the  typical  migratory  workers  or  hobos. 
Observation  was  limited  to  apparent  defects  that 

1  Report  of  the  Advisory  Social  Service  Committee  of  the  Municipal  Lodging 
House,  pp.  9-11.  New  York  City:  September,  1915. 

2  This  unpublished  study  of  400  tramps  was  made  while  riding  freight 
trains  from  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  to  Chicago  in  the  summer  of  1921.  All  the 
cases  tabulated  were  cases  in  transit.  A  large  part  of  them  were  men  who 
regularly  beat  their  way  about  the  country.  Document  1 1 5. 


128 


THE  HOBO 


would  hinder  in  a  noticeable  manner  the  working 
capacity  of  the  men. 


Senile .  6 

Maimed .  8 

Eye  lost  or  partly  blind  5 

Eye  trouble .  5 

Venereal  disease .  1 

Partly  paralyzed .  2 


Tuberculosis .  2 

Feeble-minded .  7 


Chronic  poor  health. .  .  4 

Impediment  of  speech  2 
Temporarily  injured..  .  4 

Oversized  or  undersized  4 


These  50  defects  were  distributed  among  48  persons 


Subtracting  those  who  could  be  classed  mentally 
defective,  we  have  but  forty-one  persons  who  were 
apparently  physically  handicapped.  It  will  be  noted 
that  the  percentage  of  the  aged  is  considerably  lower 
than  the  previous  tables  show.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  maimed  and  injured.  They  were  all  men  who 
were  able  to  “get  over  the  road/’  One  of  the 
maimed  men  had  lost  an  arm  while  the  two  others 
had  each  lost  a  foot. 

Eye  trouble  was  listed  separately  because  these 
were  ailments  that  were  passing.  Three  ot  the  men 
had  weak  eyes  and  this  condition  had  been  aggra¬ 
vated  by  train  riding  and  loss  of  sleep.  One  man 
had  been  gassed  in  the  army  and  his  eyes  suffered 
from  the  wind  and  bright  light.  Only  one  man 
admitted  that  he  was  suffering  from  a  venereal 
disease. 

Both  men  suffering  from  tuberculosis  were  miners. 
Both  had  been  in  hospitals  for  treatment.  One  of 
them  was  in  a  precarious  condition.  The  men 
listed  as  oversized  and  undersized  might  be  properly 
considered  physically  handicapped.  Two  of  them 
were  uncomfortably  fat  while  the  other  two  were 
conspicuously  under  weight  and  height. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


129 


THE  HOBO’S  HEALTH  ON  THE  JOB 

Often  the  seasonal  work  sought  by  the  migratory 
worker  is  located  in  out-of-the-way  places  or  with 
little  or  no  medical  or  sanitary  supervision.  Some¬ 
times  there  are  not  even  tents  for  the  men  to  sleep 
in.  Life  and  work  in  the  open,  so  conducive  to 
health  on  bright,  warm  days,  involves  exposure  in 
cold  and  stormy  weather.  In  the  northwest,  where 
rain  is  so  abundant  that  workers  suffer  considerably 
from  exposure,  strikes  have  even  been  called  to 
enforce  demands  for  warm,  dry  bunkhouses. 

In  addition  to  the  exposure  to  the  elements  there 
are  other  hazards  the  migratory  and  casual  workers 
run.  On  most  of  his  jobs,  whether  in  the  woods,  the 
swamps,  in  the  sawmills,  or  the  mines  and  quarries, 
in  the  harvest,  on  bridges  or  on  the  highways,  the 
hobo  faces  danger.  Since  he  is  in  the  habit  of  work¬ 
ing  only  a  few  days  at  the  time,  a  well-paying, 
hazardous  job  appeals  to  him.  The  not  infrequent 
accidents  are  serious  since  few  of  these  foot-loose 
men  carry  insurance. 

Seasonal  labor  generally  consists  of  hard  work  like 
shoveling  or  lifting  and  carrying  heavy  loads.  Only 
men  who  can  do  hard  work  are  wanted.  Not  much 
so-called  “light  work”  aside  from  a  few  jobs  in 
kitchens,  in  stables,  or  about  camps  is  open  to  the 
transient.  Many  homeless  men  are  not  physically 
able  to  do  eight  or  ten  hours’  hard  labor  without 
suffering.  They  are  often  weak  from  eating  poor 
food  or  from  dissipation.  Even  if  they  go  on  a  job 
with  their  minds  made  up  to  remain  one  or  two 
months  they  are  often  obliged  to  leave  after  a  few 
days.  Often  the  hobo  works  on  jobs  where  there  is 
no  medical  attention.  Sometimes,  where  the  job 


130 


THE  HOBO 


includes  large  numbers  of  men,  a  physician  is  hired 
to  go  from  camp  to  camp.  He  is  usually  known  as 
a  “pill  peddler”  and  all  he  pretends  to  do  is  give 
first  aid  to  the  injured  and  treat  passing  ailments. 
Serious  cases  he  sends  to  the  hospital. 

Big  industrial  organizations  usually  carry  some 
sort  of  medical  insurance  and  in  some  cases  accident 
insurance.  This  system  of  workingmen’s  compensa¬ 
tion  for  industrial  accidents  is  maintained  sometimes 
by  fees  taken  from  the  pay  of  the  men,  sometimes 
entirely  by  the  employer.  The  accident  compensa¬ 
tion,  the  hospital,  and  medical  privileges  apply  only 
to  ailments  and  injuries  caused  by  his  work. 

The  food  the  hobo  receives  on  the  job  is  not 
always  palatable,  nor  does  it  always  come  up  to  the 
requirements  of  a  balanced  diet  or  the  caloric  needs 
of  a  workingman.  In  the  business  of  feeding  the 
men,  considerable  exploitation  enters  which  the  men 
are  powerless  to  prevent.  The  boarding  contracts 
are  often  let  to  boarding  companies  that  agree  to 
feed  the  men  and  furnish  bunks  for  prices  ranging 
(since  the  war)  from  five  to  eight  dollars  a  week. 
For  the  privilege  of  boarding  the  workers,  they  agree 
to  keep  the  gangs  filled.  Often  in  the  West  the  men 
furnish  their  own  beds,  but  private  “bundle  beds” 
are  passing.  Some  companies  furnish  good  beds,  but 
the  general  rule  is  to  supply  a  tick  that  may  be  filled 
with  straw  and  a  couple  of  quilts  which  are  charged 
to  the  worker  until  he  returns  them.  These  quilts 
and  blankets  are  often  used  again  and  again  by 
different  men  without  being  cleaned  during  a  whole 
season. 

Several  boarding  companies  maintain  free  employ¬ 
ment  agencies  in  Chicago,  well  known  to  the  hobo 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


131 


and  generally  disliked.  The  chief  complaint  against 
them  is  that  in  hard  times,  when  men  are  plentiful, 
there  is  a  tendency  to  drop  on  the  quality  and  the 
quantity  of  the  food.  In  such  an  event  the  monot¬ 
ony  of  the  menu  and  the  unsavory  manner  in  which 
food  is  prepared  is  a  scandal  in  Hoboland.  However, 
all  complaints  against  boarding  companies  are  not 
due  to  bad  food.  Poor  cooking  is  another  ground  for 
much  dissatisfaction.  Efficient  camp  cooks  are  rare 
and  too  high  priced  for  the  average  boarding  company. 

THE  HEALTH  OF  THE  MAN  ON  THE  “  STEM  ” 

The  hazards  the  homeless  man  takes  while  at 
work  in  the  city  are  far  less  than  on  the  seasonal 
out-of-town  work.  The  health  problem  of  the 
transient  “on  the  stem”  is  nevertheless  serious.  It 
is  not  so  much  a  problem  of  work  conditions  as  of 
hotels  and  lodging  accommodations  and  restaurants. 

The  cheap  lodging-houses  and  hotels  in  Chicago 
are  under  the  surveillance  of  the  Chicago  Depart¬ 
ment  of  Health.  The  department  has  done  much 
to  keep  down  contagion  and  to  raise  the  standards  of 
these  places.  Infectious  diseases  have  been  more 
rare  here  than  in  hotels  in  the  Loop.  These  hotels 
survived  the  influenza  epidemics  as  well  as  any  in  the 
city.  There  has  been  a  gradual  rise  in  the  standards 
of  health  and  sanitation  of  the  hotels  and  lodging- 
houses,  but  just  how  much  this  is  due  to  the  watchful 
care  of  the  Department  of  Health  cannot  be  said. 
Other  factors,  such  as  business  competition,  may  also 
have  entered  in  to  improve  conditions. 

In  many  respects  the  cheap  workingmen’s  hotels 
still  fall  far  below  the  standards  set  by  law.  Indeed, 
if  all  of  them  lived  up  to  the  letter  of  the  law  in  every 


132 


THE  HOBO 


respect,  many  would  find  it  unprofitable  to  operate. 
These  hotels  are  in  buildings  that  were  erected  for 
other  purposes,  buildings  that  cannot  be  adequately 
made  over  to  accommodate  comfortably  hundreds 
of  men. 

The  problem  of  ventilation  is  present  in  the  older 
hotels  for  men.  In  some  corners,  in  hallways  and 
isolated  rooms,  there  is  never  any  circulation  of  air. 
The  smells  accumulate  from  day  to  day  so  that  the 
guest  on  entering  a  room  is  greeted  by  a  variety  of 
odors  to  which  each  of  his  predecessors  has  con¬ 
tributed. 

The  following  statement  of  an  investigator  indi¬ 
cates  what  is  one  of  the  most  objectionable  features 
of  the  cheap  hotel. 

The  lack  of  adequate  toilet  facilities  is  deplorable.  In  one 
hotel  I  found  two  toilets  for  one  hundred  and  eighty  men  and 
in  another  seven  for  three  hundred  and  eighty.  Some  of  the 
toilets  have  absolutely  no  outside  ventilation,  opening  on  sleeping 
rooms.  Some  of  them  are  located  in  halls  with  no  partition 
separating  them  from  sleeping  rooms  and  are  a  source  of  foul  and 
nauseating  odors.1 

With  respect  to  wash  basins  and  bath  facilities  the 
condition  is  no  better.  Many  do  not  even  have  hot 
water.  In  some  places  from  twenty  to  forty  men  use 
the  same  wash  bowl. 

The  Department  of  Health  has  taken  an  active 
part  in  the  campaign  against  vermin,  and  co-operates 
whenever  a  complaint  is  made.  Their  task  seems 
hopeless  since  the  patrons  are  so  transient  and  so 
frequently  carry  vermin  from  one  place  to  another. 
The  very  buildings  are  often  breeding  places  for 
bedbugs,  lice,  and  roaches. 

1  George  S.  Sobel,  Report  to  Committee ,  summer,  1922. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


133 


SICKNESS  AND  DISEASE 

If  the  homeless  man  becomes  sick  or  injured  while 
at  work  he  likely  will  be  cared  for  by  the  hospital 
maintained  by  the  industry.  But  he  is  in  dire  dis¬ 
tress  when  he  has  no  job  and  is  in  need  of  medical 
attention.  Occasionally  men  without  funds  go  to 
private  physicians  and  not  infrequently  they  get  free 
treatment,  but  the  traditional  and  easier  method  of 
meeting  such  situations  is  to  go  to  an  institution. 
Chicago,  with  its  numerous  hospitals  and  medical 
colleges,  is  a  Mecca  for  the  sick  and  the  afflicted  of  the 
“floating  fraternity. ”  Homeless  men  come  some¬ 
times  several  hundred  miles  for  treatment  to  this 
great  healing  center  of  trampdom.  They  have  no 
scruples  against  entering  an  institution  as  a  charity 
patient.  To  them  it  is  not  charity,  but  something 
due  to  the  sick. 


VENEREAL  DISEASE 

Venereal  disease  and  ailments  growing  out  of 
venereal  disease  play  a  considerable  role  among  the 
tramp  population.  The  Chicago  Health  Depart¬ 
ment  on  the  basis  of  the  medical  examination  of 
inmates  of  the  House  of  Correction  estimates  that 
io  per  cent  of  the  homeless  men  are  venereally 
infected.1  This  is  double  the  rate  of  infection  found 
in  drafted  men.2 

The  transient  does  not  take  venereal  disease 
seriously.  He  takes  no  precautions  to  protect  him¬ 
self  after  exposure.  Necessity  forces  him  out  on 
some  job  where  he  must  work,  sometimes  even  in  an 

1  Letter  from  Chicago  Health  Department  to  Committee  on  Homeless 

Men. 

2  U.S.  Surgeon  General’s  Office,  Defects  Found  in  Drafted  Men. 


134 


THE  HOBO 


active  stage  of  infection.  Often  he  tries  to  treat 
himself  with  remedies  recommended  by  druggists  or 
friends.  Once  the  transient  submits  to  treatment  in 
a  hospital  or  by  a  physician  he  will  seldom  continue 
it  after  the  active  stage  of  his  case  has  been  passed. 

Along  the  “stem,”  sex  perversion  is  not  infre¬ 
quent  and  occasionally  from  such  contacts  infections 
occur.  Embarrassing  as  it  is  for  the  homeless  man 
to  apply  to  a  hospital  or  clinic  for  treatment  for 
social  disease,  it  is  doubly  so  when  thus  infected. 
That  such  cases  are  not  numerous  is  true,  but  they 
do  exist,  and  they  provide  an  answer  to  the  pervert 
who  holds  that  homosexuality  is  safe  from  disease.1 

ALCOHOLISM  AND  HEALTH 

Practically  all  homeless  men  drink  when  liquor 
is  available.  The  only  sober  moments  for  many 
hobos  and  tramps  are  when  they  are  without  funds.2 
The  majority,  however,  are  periodic  drinkers  who 
have  sober  periods  of  a  week,  a  month  or  two,  or 

1  Unpublished  Document  87  is  a  statement  from  Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman, 
based  upon  cases  in  his  practice  of  veneral  infection  caused  by  homosexual 
relations. 

2  It  is  of  interest  to  note  the  findings  of  the  study  of  2,000  men  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  Municipal  Lodging  House  of  New  York  City,  1914: 

“Of  1,482  men  who  made  statements  regarding  their  habits,  1,292 — 
approximately  9  out  of  every  10 — said  they  drank  alcoholic  liquors.  Six  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty-seven  or  44  per  cent  said  that  they  drank  excessively;  635,  or 
43  per  cent,  said  that  they  drank  moderately;  and  190,  or  13  per  cent,  claimed 
to  be  total  abstainers. 

“Of  the  2,000  who  were  given  a  medical  examination,  775,  or  39  per  cent, 
were  diagnosed  as  suffering  from  alcoholism.  According  to  Dr.  James  Alexander 
Miller,  these  ‘figures  probably  do  not  represent  by  any  means  the  number  of 
individuals  who  were  alcoholic  ....  but  rather  indicate  only  the  number 
who  manifested  acute  evidence  at  the  time  of  investigation.’” — From  the 
Report  of  the  Advisory  Social  Service  Committee  of  the  Municipal  Lodging  House , 
pp.  9-22.  New  York:  September,  1915. 

Here  we  have  in  a  few  words  a  cross-section  of  the  drinking  population 
among  the  homeless  men  in  New  York  where  conditions  are  not  materially 
different  and  where  the  population  is  essentially  the  same  as  in  Hobohemia. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


135 


even  a  year.  These  are  the  men  who  often  work  all 
summer  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  going  to  some 
lodging-house  and  living  quietly  during  the  winter, 
but  usually  they  find  themselves  in  the  midst  of  a 
drunken  debauch  before  they  have  been  in  town  more 
than  a  day  or  two.  Rarely  does  one  meet  a  man 
among  migratory  workers  who  does  not  indulge  in 
an  occasional  “spree ” ;  the  teetotalers  are  few  indeed. 

The  homeless  man  on  a  spree  usually  drinks  as 
long  as  his  money  lasts,  and  then  he  usually  employs 
all  the  devices  at  his  command  to  get  money  to 
prolong  the  debauch.  For  the  time  being  he  will 
disregard  all  other  wants.  After  he  sobers  up  and 
finds  himself  sick,  weak,  and  nervous,  his  plight  is  a 
sad  one.  He  has  no  appetite  for  the  only  food  he  is 
able  to  buy  and  the  food  he  craves  he  cannot  afford. 
He  is  too  weak  and  shaky  to  work,  and  too  disheart¬ 
ened  to  beg.  In  summer  he  can  go  to  the  parks  or 
the  docks  and  sleep  it  off.  Getting  drunk  in  winter 
means  more  or  less  exposure  for  these  men,  and  their 
sobering  up  not  infrequently  takes  place  in  the  hospi¬ 
tal — or  in  jail.  In  view  of  these  after-effects,  drink¬ 
ing  is  more  serious  for  the  homeless  man  than  for 
any  other. 

Chronic  or  periodic  drunkenness  with  its  accom¬ 
panying  exposure  leaves  a  stamp  on  the  constitution 
of  the  homeless  man  that  is  not  easily  erased.  It 
aggravates  any  latent  weaknesses  that  he  may  have, 
and  if  he  does  not  go  to  the  hospital  after  a  debauch 
with  lung  trouble,  nervous  diseases,  heart  trouble,  or 
rheumatism,  he  is  at  least  lowering  his  resistance  to 
these  and  other  diseases.  The  man  who  survives  best 
spends  long  periods  on  the  job  and  only  occasionally 
visits  the  city. 


136 


THE  HOBO 


When  the  amount  of  exposure,  the  extent  of  dis¬ 
sipation,  and  the  malnutrition  that  falls  to  the  lot 
of  the  homeless  man  are  taken  into  consideration,  it 
is  remarkable  that  he  is  as  free  from  sickness  as  he 
is.  The  fact  that  he  is  outdoors  much  of  the  time 
may  have  something  to  do  with  this. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  HEALTH 

Disease,  physical  disability,  and  insanitary  living 
conditions  seem  to  be,  as  things  are,  the  natural  and 
inevitable  consequences  of  the  migratory  risk-taking 
and  irregular  life  of  the  homeless  man.  These 
effects  of  his  work  and  life  upon  his  physical  constitu¬ 
tion  will  be  considered  by  many  the  most  appalling 
of  all  the  problems  affecting  the  hobo  and  the  tramp. 
Municipal  provision  and  philanthropic  effort  have 
been  and  will  continue  to  be  directed  to  the  treat¬ 
ment  of  his  diseases  and  defects  and  to  the  improve¬ 
ment  of  his  living  conditions.  The  efficiency  of  the 
homeless  man  as  a  worker  and  his  chance  of  regain¬ 
ing  his  lost  economic  and  social  status  depend  upon 
his  physical  rehabilitation.  A  clearing  house  for 
the  homeless  man  when  established  should,  therefore, 
include  as  one  of  its  activities  facilities  for  diagnosis 
of  the  needs,  medical,  vocational,  social,  of  each 
individual. 

The  living  conditions  of  the  homeless  man, 
although  revolting  to  the  public,  are  intolerable  to 
him,  chiefly  as  a  symbol  of  his  degradation. 
Lodging-house  sanitation  and  personal  hygiene  are 
of  minor  import,  in  his  thinking,  as  compared  with 
working  conditions,  or,  for  that  matter,  with  the 
problems  of  his  social  and  political  status,  to  be 
discussed  in  the  next  two  chapters. 


CHAPTER  X 

SEX  LIFE  OF  THE  HOMELESS  MAN 


TRAMPING  is  a  man’s  game.  Few  women  are 

ever  found  on  the  road.  The  inconveniences 

and  hazards  of  tramping  prevent  it.  Women  do 

wander  from  city  to  city  but  convention  forbids  them 

to  ride  the  roads  and  move  about  as  men  do.  One 

tramp  who  had  traveled  8,000  miles  in  six  months 

said:  “I  even  saw  two  women  on  the  road,  and  last 

summer  I  saw  a  woman  beating  her  way  in  a  box 
>> 

car. 

Tramping  is  a  man’s  game.  Few  pre-adolescent 
boys  are  tramps.  They  do  not  break  away  perma¬ 
nently  until  later  in  their  teens.  How  does  the 
absence  of  women  and  children  affect  the  life  of  the 
migratory  worker  ?  What  difference  would  it  make 
if  tramps  traveled  like  gypsies,  taking  their  women 
and  children  with  them  ?  How  does  the  absence  of 
women  and  children  affect  the  fantasy  and  the 
reveries  and  eventually  the  behavior  of  the  homeless 
man  ? 

The  majority  of  homeless  men  are  unmarried. 
Those  who  are  married  are  separated,  at  least  tem¬ 
porarily,  from  their  families.1  Most  homeless  men  in 
the  city  are  older  than  the  average  man  on  the  road 
and  would  be  expected,  therefore,  to  have  had 
marital  experience.  They  are  content  to  live  in  town 
while  the  younger  men  are  eager  to  move  in  the  rest¬ 
less  search  for  adventure  and  new  experience. 

1  Of  the  1,000  men  studied  by  Mrs.  Solenberger,  74  per  cent  gave  their 
marital  status  as  single.  Of  the  400  interviewed  by  the  writer  86  per  cent  stated 
that  they  were  unmarried.  Only  8  per  cent  of  the  former  and  5  per  cent  of  the 
latter  survey  claimed  they  were  married.  The  others  claimed  to  be  widowed, 
divorced,  or  separated  from  their  wives.  Unpublished  Document  142. 

[137 


138 


THE  HOBO 


THE  TRAMP  AND  HIS  ASSOCIATIONS 
WITH  WOMEN 

The  homeless  man  has  not  always  been  homeless. 
Like  most  of  us,  he  was  reared  in  a  home  and  is  so 
far  a  product  of  home  life.  He  enters  upon  the  life 
of  the  road  in  his  late  teens  or  early  twenties.  He 
brings  with  him,  as  a  rule,  the  habits  and  memories 
gained  in  the  more  stable  existence  in  the  family  and 
community.  Frequently  it  has  been  his  conflict 
with,  and  rebellion  against,  that  more  stable  exist¬ 
ence  that  set  him  on  the  road. 

Most  of  these  men  have  mothers  living.  If  their 
mothers  are  dead,  they  speak  of  them  reverently. 
The  mission  workers  often  direct  their  appeals  to 
these  early  memories,  “the  religion  of  our  mothers/’ 
The  only  correspondence  that  some  homeless  men 
carry  on  is  with  their  mothers.  Some  of  them  only 
write  one  or  two  letters  a  year  but  these  are  letters 
home.  In  most  of  the  missions  there  is  a  sign  with 
the  inscription,  “When  Did  You  Write  to  Mother 
Last  ?” 

Other  women  may,  and  sometimes  do,  exert  a 
wholesome  influence  upon  him.  He  is  often  pro¬ 
foundly  touched  by  the  women  of  the  missions  who 
stand  on  the  street  corner  and  plead  with  him  for  his 
soul’s  sake.  Young  and  attractive  women  invite 
more  attention  because  of  their  sex  than  their 
message.  Though  he  may  have  little  or  no  interest 
in  the  religious  appeal,  feeling  for  these  women  is 
generally  idealized  and  wholesome.  The  missions 
have  learned  the  value  of  young  and  attractive 
women  and  employ  them  extensively  as  evangelists. 

Women  in  places  where  the  hobo  has  worked  or 
boarded,  generally  older  women,  frequently  take  a 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


139 


mother’s  interest  in  him.  “Mother”  Greenstein, 
who  keeps  a  restaurant  on  South  State  Street,  is  the 
idol  of  a  great  many  “bos.”  She  never  turns  a 
hungry  man  away.  She  is  known  far  and  near  by 
tramps  and  hobos.  Many  men  know  her  by  reputa¬ 
tion  who  have  never  seen  her. 

Another  woman  who  has  become  well  known  to 
many  homeless  men  is  “Aunt”  Nina  S.  She  kept  a 
rooming-house  for  years  and  always  gave  any  man 
who  came  to  her  in  winter  some  place  to  sleep.  She 
could  always  find  room.  Her  only  compensation  was 
the  good  will  of  the  homeless  man. 

51.  Another  woman  who  has  won  a  place  in  the  hearts  of 
men  of  West  Madison  Street  is  an  old  lady  whom  the  “bos” 
call  “Mother.”  She  does  not  give  them  anything;  on  the  con¬ 
trary  she  begs  from  them  but  she  takes  a  motherly  interest  in  all 
the  “boys.”  She  is  against  anyone  who  makes  life  hard  for 
them  and  hates  the  bootleggers,  the  gypsies,  the  gamblers,  and 
all  who  exploit  them.  She  will  denounce  and  curse  anyone  who 
dares  to  call  them  “bums”  in  her  presence.  Her  hobby  is  cats. 
She  spends  several  hours  a  day  going  up  and  down  the  street 
feeding  cats.  All  the  “boys”  are  tolerant  of  all  cats  on  the  street 
because  they  belong  to  “Mother.”  He  is  a  poor  “bo,”  indeed, 
who  will  not  spare  “Mother”  a  dime  now  and  then  for  milk 
for  her  “kitties.” 

When  the  tramp  works  he  usually  goes  out  on 
some  job  where  there  are  no  women.  He  may  spend 
six  months  in  a  lumber  camp  and  not  see  a  woman 
during  all  that  time.  He  may  work  for  a  whole 
summer,  along  with  hundreds  like  himself,  and  never 
meet  a  woman.  Sometimes  there  are  women  on 
such  jobs,  but  they  are  generally  the  wives  of  the 
bosses  and  have  no  interest  in  the  common  workers. 
Children  in  such  families  frequently  strike  up  a  more 
intimate  acquaintance  with  them.  The  only  com- 


140 


THE  HOBO 


pany  for  such  a  man  is  men,  and  men  who  are  living 
the  same  unnatural  life  as  himself. 

There  are  jobs  open  to  the  homeless  man  that  are 
more  wholesome.  Sometimes  he  finds  himself  in 
communities  where  he  is  neither  isolated  nor  an  out¬ 
cast.  The  tramp  is  not  often  interested  in  small¬ 
town  or  country  associations,  because  they  generally 
tend  to  terminate  seriously  and  he  does  not  want  to 
be  taken  seriously.  If  he  has  the  money  to  spend, 
and  he  usually  has  while  he  is  working,  he  can  meet 
women,  but  he  meets  them  in  town  when  he  has 
leisure.  He  may  have  a  hundred  reasons  for  going 
to  town,  but  the  major  reason,  whether  he  admits  it 
or  not,  is  to  meet  women.  The  types  of  women  he 
meets  depends  upon  his  personality,  his  taste,  and 
his  purse.  In  this  he  is  like  the  soldier  or  the  sailor. 

The  younger  hobos,  especially  those  who  are  on 
the  road  and  off  again  by  turns,  are  able  at  times  to 
save  money  and  put  on  a  “front.”  These  younger 
men  are  frequently  able,  therefore,  to  get  into  the 
social  life  of  the  communities  in  which  they  find 
themselves.  When  they  are  in  town  with  money 
to  spend  they  “go  the  limit”  while  it  lasts,  and  then 
they  go  out  to  work  and  save  up  another  “stake.” 
Usually  they  have  a  number  of  women  on  their 
correspondence  lists.  As  they  go  from  one  city  to 
another  they  make  new  acquaintances  and  forget 
the  old  friends.  Usually  they  are  as  transient  in 
their  attachments  to  women  as  to  their  jobs. 

Many  of  these  younger  men  ultimately  settle 
down,  but  they  do  not  always  have  the  ability  to 
make  permanent  attachments  though  they  may  try 
again  and  again.  They  invariably  seek  greener 
pastures.  Wherever  they  are,  they  will  be  found 


THE1HOBO  IPROBLEM 


141 


“  burning  the  candles  at  both  ends.”  As  long  as  they 
are  young  and  attractive  they  have  little  difficulty 
in  finding  girls  who  are  willing  to  assist  them  in 
scattering  their  cash. 

Among  these  are  the  show  girls  who  sing  or  dance 
in  the  cheap  burlesque  theaters  on  South  State  and 
West  Madison  streets.  Thousands  of  hobos,  who 
never  can  hope  to  come  in  personal  contact  with 
chorus  girls,  throng  the  cheap  playhouses  of  Hobo- 
hemia.  The  titillations  of  a  State  Street  vaudeville 
are  vulgar  and  inexpensive.  The  men,  many  of 
them,  at  least,  would  not  and  could  not  appreciate 
a  higher  grade  of  entertainment. 

The  hobo  has  few  ideal  associations  with  women. 
Since  most  of  them  are  unmarried,  or  living  apart 
from  their  wives,  their  sex  relations  are  naturally 
illicit.  The  tramp  is  not  a  marrying  man,  though  he 
does  enter  into  transient  free  unions  with  women 
when  the  occasion  offers.  There  are  many  women 
in  the  larger  cities  who  have  no  scruples  against 
living  with  a  man  during  the  winter,  or  for  even  a 
year  or  two,  without  insisting  upon  the  marriage  rite. 
They  are  not  prostitutes,  not  even  “kept  women.” 

52.  M.  lived  with  Mrs.  S.  N.  for  four  or  five  years,  off  and 
on,  whenever  he  was  in  town.  What  little  money  he  earned  he 
brought  home,  though  he  took  money  from  Mrs.  N.  more  fre¬ 
quently.  She  worked  and  usually  when  she  came  home  very 
tired  he  would  have  the  house  work  done  and  a  meal  ready. 
When  she  was  sick  he  waited  on  her.  He  listened  to  her  troubles 
and  was  patient  and  good  natured.  In  winter  he  always  got  up 
and  made  the  fires.  She  was  always  jealous  of  him  and  when  he 
would  leave  town  for  a  month  or  two  she  fancied  that  it  was  to 
get  away  from  her  and  to  live  with  some  other  woman.  Finally 
they  separated,  but  they  are  still  good  friends.  He  is  living  with 
another  woman  and  she  with  another  man.  Of  late  he  is  only 
in  Chicago  in  winter. 


142 


THE  HOBO 


The  tramp  who  succeeds  in  living  in  idleness 
with  a  woman  in  such  a  companionship  considers 
himself  fortunate.  The  woman  who  can  find  a  man 
like  M.  is  often  content,  provided  he  is  faithful  to 
her,  although  she  prefers  a  man  who  can  be  depended 
upon  to  earn  a  little  money.  The  women  who  enter 
these  free  unions  have  the  least  to  gain  and  the  most 
to  lose.  The  general  experience  of  women  who  keep 
their  “men”  is  that  when  they  are  in  the  direst  need 
the  men  will  desert  them;  on  the  other  l\and,  when 
the  men  are  in  need  they  will  return. 

A  certain  class  of  detached  men  makes  a  practice 
of  getting  into  the  good  graces  of  some  prostitute  for 
the  winter.  The  panderer  is  not  a  characteristic 
tramp  type,  but  certain  homeless  men  are  not  averse 
to  becoming  pimps  for  a  season.  These  attachments 
between  homeless  men  and  prostitutes  are  often  quite 
real.  Some  of  them  even  become  permanent,  others 
last  a  year  or  two,  but  most  of  them  are  only  of  a 
few  months’  duration.  While  they  do  persist  they 
are  often  more  or  less  sentimental. 

THE  HOBO  AND  PROSTITUTION 

Most  hobos  and  tramps  because  of  drink,  un¬ 
presentable  appearance,  or  unattractive  personal¬ 
ity,  do  not  succeed  in  establishing  permanent,  or 
even  quasi-permanent,  relationships  with  women. 
For  them  the  only  accessible  women  are  prostitutes 
and  the  prostitutes  who  solicit  the  patronage  of  the 
homeless  man  are  usually  forlorn  and  bedraggled 
creatures  who  have  not  been  able  to  hold  out  in  the 
fierce  competition  in  higher  circles. 

These  women,  otherwise  so  isolated  and  so  hard 
pressed  by  their  exigent  wants,  do  not  live  on  the 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


143 


“main  stem/’  but  adjacent  to  it.  They  are  conven¬ 
iently  located  so  that  even  the  “floater/’  who  comes 
to  town  with  a  few  months’  savings,  has  no  trouble 
in  finding  them.  The  upper-class  prostitutes  keep 
men  on  the  street  getting  the  business  for  them. 
Pandering  is  an  art,  and  many  of  these  pimps  have 
become  adepts  in  catching  the  men  who  come  to 
town  with  “rolls.”  Only  a  small  part  of  the  com¬ 
merce  of  the  homeless  man  is  with  the  “live  ones.” 
He  usually  has  so  little  money  that  he  is  forced  to 
bargain  for  the  attention  of  the  lowest  women  that 
walk  the  streets. 

Men  with  “rolls”  are  scarce  in  Hobohemia.  One 
man  met  on  West  Madison  Street  said:  “I  came  in 
last  night  with  $380  and  now  I’m  flatter’n  a  pancake. 
I  didn’t  even  get  a  pair  of  sox.  Hallelujah!  I’m  a 
bum.”  He  was  still  too  drunk  to  realize  the  situa¬ 
tion,  but  next  day  he  was  uncertain  whether  he  had 
been  robbed  by  a  woman  or  by  a  “jack  roller.”  He 
did  not  even  know  whether  he  had  been  robbed  or  had 
lost  his  money.  He  had  worked  all  winter  and  spring 
on  a  ranch  near  Casper,  Wyoming,  and  had  come  to 
town  with  a  trainload  of  cattle.1  It  is  seldom  that 
the  second-rate  prostitute  gets  hold  of  so  much  money. 

From  these  “second  raters”  the  tramp  is  doubly 
liable  to  infection.  Most  of  them  have  been  diseased 
at  some  time  while  some  of  them  are  infected  all  the 
time.  More  than  one-third  of  them,  according  to 
Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman,  of  the  Chicago  Health  Depart¬ 
ment,  are  constantly  spreading  infection.  The 
homeless  man  is  well  aware  of  the  risk  he  runs 
when  he  patronizes  the  prostitute,  but  he  does  not 
realize  the  gravity  of  the  danger. 

1  Unpublished  Document  114. 


144 


THE  HOBO 


PERVERSION  AMONG  THE  TRAMPS 

All  studies  indicate  that  homosexual  practices 
among  homeless  men  are  widespread.  They  are 
especially  prevalent  among  men  on  the  road  among 
whom  there  is  a  tendency  to  idealize  and  justify  the 
practice.  Homosexuality  is  not  more  common 
among  tramps  than  among  other  one-sex  groups. 
In  the  prison  and  jail  population,  the  authorities 
are  forced  to  wage  a  constant  warfare  against  it. 
The  same  condition  prevails  also  in  the  navy  or 
merchant  marine,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  in  the  army.1 

Among  tramps  there  are,  it  seems,  two  types  of 
perverts.  There  are  those  who  are  subjects,  in  the 
words  of  Havelock  Ellis,  “of  a  congenital  predisposi¬ 
tion,  or  complexus  of  abnormalities.”  Ellis  contends 
that  certain  individuals,  different  temperamentally 
and  physically  from  the  rest  of  us,  are  not  attracted 
by  the  opposite  sex  but  are  easily  attracted  by  their 
own  sex.  Most  of  them  are  men  who  have  developed 
from  childhood  feminine  traits  and  tastes,  and  they 
may  be  regarded  as  predisposed  to  homosexuality. 
The  second  group  is  composed  of  individuals  who 
have  temporarily  substituted  homosexual  for  hetero¬ 
sexual  behavior.  Most  of  these  perverts  by  conver¬ 
sion  are  men  who,  under  the  pressure  of  sex  isolation, 
have  substituted  boy  for  woman  as  the  object  of  their 
desires.  This  is  chiefly  because  boys  are  accessible 
while  women  are  not. 

THE  BOY  TRAMP  AND  PERVERSION 

The  boy  does  not  need  to  remain  long  in  hobo 
society  to  learn  of  homosexual  practices.  The 
average  boy  on  the  road  is  invariably  approached 

1  Iwan  Bloch,  Sexual  Life  of  Our  Times ,  p.  540. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


145 


by  men  who  get  into  his  good  graces.  Some 
“homos”  claim  that  every  boy  is  a  potential  homo¬ 
sexual.  This  is  without  doubt  an  exaggeration  as 
well  as  a  defense,  for  not  all  boys  are  subject  to 
persuasion.  Sometimes  boys  will  travel  alone  or  with 
other  boys  to  avoid  the  approaches  of  older  men. 
Often  boys  will  refrain  from  traveling  with  adults, 
even  well-behaved  adults,  because  they  realize  that 
they  will  be  under  suspicion.  It  is  not  uncommon 
to  hear  a  boy  who  is  seen  traveling  with  an  older  man 
spoken  of  as  the  “wife”  or  “woman.”  It  is  only 
natural  that  many  boys  fear  to  be  alone  with  adult 
tramps. 

53.  The  case  of  M.  is  typical.  He  is  a  sixteen  year  old  boy 
who  travels  alone.  He  is  a  handsome  lad;  small  for  his  age  and 
neat  in  appearance.  He  is  just  the  type  of  boy  that  would 
attract  the  average  “wolf”  who  idealizes  pink  cheeks  and  an 
innocent  appearance.  He  travels  alone  because  of  his  fear  of 
“wolves.”  He  had  not  been  away  from  home  three  weeks  and 
he  says  that  he  has  been  accosted  several  times.  Although  he 
had  been  in  Chicago  but  a  day  he  had  received  advances  from 
two  men  who  tried  to  persuade  him  to  go  to  a  room. 

Many  devices  are  employed  by  them  to  place  the 
lad  in  their  debt  or  under  their  protection.  If 
methods  of  persuasion  do  not  work,  force  is  some¬ 
times  used.  One  man  gave  a  brakeman  a  dollar  to  put 
a  boy  off  the  train  at  a  lonely  siding.  Another  man 
learned  which  direction  a  certain  boy  was  traveling 
and  followed  him  from  town  to  town,  “accidentally” 
meeting  him  at  each  place.  The  lad  was  without 
funds,  and  so  was  the  man,  but  the  latter  was  able  to 
beg  and  usually  had  a  “lump”  when  he  met  the  boy 
and  he  always  divided.  Another  man  led  a  boy  a 
mile  or  so  out  in  the  country  to  a  place  where  he 


146 


THE  HOBO 


claimed  he  had  worked  during  the  previous  year  and 
where  he  knew  they  could  both  get  something  to  eat. 

Another  common  ruse  is  to  take  a  boy  to  a  room 
or  a  box  car  to  sleep.  The  man  suggests  that  he 
knows  a  clean  car  in  a  safe  place  with  plenty  of  straw 
or  paper  on  the  floor.  In  a  big  city  the  boy  is  often 
enticed  to  a  room  for  the  same  purpose.  There  are 
many  cases  on  record  in  the  Chicago  courts.1 

54.  A.  F.,  a  boy  sixteen  years  old,  was  being  held  in  a  room 
on  West  Ohio  Street  to  which  he  had  been  enticed  for  immoral 
purposes  by  John  M.  J.  M.  was  arrested  on  complaint  of  one  F. 
He  was  found  in  company  with  another  boy  in  a  room  in  the 
E.  Hotel  on  South  State  Street.  John  was  held  for  trial  on 
$3,000  bonds  which  he  could  not  furnish.  He  died  in  jail  waiting 
for  trial. 

55.  C.  J.  This  man  worked  on  a  boat  plying  between  Michi¬ 
gan  ports  and  Chicago.  He  persuaded  a  Michigan  boy  whose 
home  was  near  Lansing  but  who  had  run  away  and  was  loafing 
about  the  docks  on  the  lake  front,  to  come  with  him  to  Chicago. 
He  promised  to  help  the  boy  get  a  job,  etc.  He  took  him  to  a 
room  on  South  State  Street  where  he  held  him  for  three  days 
and  had  improper  relations  with  him.  Prior  to  his  apprehension 
he  had  turned  the  boy  over  to  another  man  for  the  same  purpose. 

Josiah  Flynt,  who  was  familiar  with  tramp  life, 
seems  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  most  boys  are  forced 
into  the  practice.  However,  it  does  not  seem  prob¬ 
able  that  force  is  so  extensively  employed  as  is  some¬ 
times  believed.  These  accounts  serve  as  a  defense 
reaction  on  their  part,  yet  we  cannot  say  that 
such  forced  initiations  do  not  occur.  But  even 
those  who  at  the  outset  were  the  victims  of  “strong 
arm”  methods  often  become  reconciled  to  the 
practice  and  continue  it.  Often  they  become  pro¬ 
miscuous  in  their  relations  and  many  of  them  even 
commercialize  themselves. 

1  Unpublished  Document  32. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


147 


Writers  on  the  sex  behavior  of  men  and  boys  often 
refer  to  the  relationship  as  it  exists  among  tramps  as 
a  sort  of  slavery.  By  slavery  is  meant  that  boys  are 
held  in  bondage  to  men  and  forced  to  steal  and  beg 
for  them.  This  condition  may  exist  in  isolated 
instances  but  it  is  not  general.  It  is  even  suggested 
by  some  authorities  that  there  exists  some  sort  of 
organization  among  tramps  through  which  boys 
have  been  “caught ”  and  kept  in  servitude.  The  best 
evidence  that  such  an  organization  does  not  exist  is 
the  fact  that  perverted  sex  practices  are  frowned  upon 
by  the  tramps  themselves. 

The  court  records  show,  however,  that  not  infre¬ 
quently  boys  are  held  in  rooms,  or  taken  to  lonely 
buildings,  or  out  on  the  lake  front,  or  in  the  parks, 
but  the  case  that  gets  into  court  is  seldom  one  in 
which  both  parties  were  free  agents.  If  there  is 
slavery  in  these  latter  cases  it  is  slavery  to  their  pas¬ 
sions,  or  to  a  state  of  mind  growing  out  of  their  habits 
and  their  isolation. 

The  duration  of  an  intimacy  of  this  kind  in  the 
city  is  seldom  more  than  a  few  days.  On  the  road, 
however,  the  “partnership”  may  last  for  weeks. 
Whereas,  out  of  town  the  pair  can  travel  as  compan¬ 
ions  aiding  each  other,  in  the  city  they  can  get  along 
better  alone.  It  is  difficult  for  partners  to  remain 
together  long  in  the  city,  especially  if  one  has  money 
and  the  other  none,  or  if  one  drinks  and  the  other 
does  not.  Living  in  a  metropolis  is  a  problem  the 
tramp  can  solve  better  alone. 

ATTITUDES  OF  THE  PERVERT 

Tramp  perverts  argue  that  homosexual  inter¬ 
course  is  “clean”  and  that  homosexuals  are  less  liable 


148 


THE  HOBO 


to  become  infected  with  venereal  disease.  The  Vice 
Commission  of  Chicago,  in  its  report  for  1911,  states 
that  homosexual  individuals  “are  not  known  in  their 
true  character  to  any  extent  by  the  physicians 
because  of  the  fact  that  their  habits  do  not,  as  a  rule, 
produce  bodily  disease/’1 

It  is  also  urged  by  perverts  that  in  the  homosexual 
relation  there  is  the  absence  of  the  eternal  complica¬ 
tions  in  which  one  becomes  involved  with  women. 
They  want  to  avoid  intimacies  that  complicate  the 
free  life  to  which  they  are  by  temperament  and  habit 
committed.  Homosexual  attachments  are  generally 
short  lived,  but  they  are  real  while  they  last.  Some¬ 
times  a  man  will  assume  a  priority  over  a  boy  and 
will  even  fight  to  maintain  it.  The  investigator  dur¬ 
ing  his  study  of  this  phase  of  the  tramp  problem 
made  two  unsuccessful  attempts  to  step  between 
men  and  their  boys,  or  “lambs.”  In  one  case  his 
interference  was  resented  by  both  the  man  and  the 
boy,  but  in  the  other  it  was  rather  enjoyed  by  the 
boy,  though  he  would  not  be  separated  from  his 
“wolf.” 

The  investigator  met  S.,  a  veteran  “wolf”  on 
Madison  Street.  When  he  was  asked  why  his  face 
was  so  badly  bruised  he  said  that  he  and  another  man 
had  fought  over  a  boy.  “He  was  trying  to  get  my 
kid  into  a  room  with  him.”  He  claimed  that  he  hit 
the  man  and  ran  but  that  he  was  arrested.  He  was 
held  over  night  in  the  Desplaines  Street  Station  on 
a  charge  of  disorderly  conduct,  but  was  discharged 
the  next  morning.  What  hurt  him  most  was  not 
the  night  in  jail  or  his  bruised  face  but  the  fact  that 
the  other  man  had  left  town  with  the  boy. 

1  The  Social  Evil  in  Chicago,  pp.  296-97. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


149 


In  his  sex  life,  as  in  his  whole  existence,  the  home¬ 
less  man  moves  in  a  vicious  circle.  Industrially 
inadequate,  his  migratory  habits  render  him  the 
more  economically  inefficient.  A  social  outcast,  he 
still  wants  the  companionship  which  his  mode  of 
life  denies  him.  Debarred  from  family  life,  he 
hungers  for  intimate  associations  and  affection.  The 
women  that  he  knows,  with  few  exceptions,  are 
repulsive  to  him.  Attractive  women  live  in  social 
worlds  infinitely  remote  from  his.  With  him  the 
fundamental  wishes  of  the  person  for  response  and 
status  have  been  denied  expression.  The  preva¬ 
lence  of  sexual  perversion  among  the  homeless  men 
is,  therefore,  but  the  extreme  expression  of  their  un¬ 
natural  sex  life.  Homosexual  practices  arise  almost 
inevitably  in  similar  situations  of  sex  isolation.  A 
constructive  solution  for  the  problems  of  the  sex  life 
of  the  homeless  man  strikes  deeper  into  our  social 
life  than  this  study  can  carry  us. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  HOBO  AS  A  CITIZEN 


WHERE  are  we  to  place  the  hobo  as  a  citizen  ? 

What  is  his  actual  status  as  a  member  of 
society  or  as  a  functioning  unit  in  the  state  ?  Where 
does  he  stand  in  relation  to  organized  society  and  its 
laws  and  its  mores. 

The  public  dismisses  these  questions  by  assign¬ 
ing  the  hobo  and  the  tramp  to  the  class  of  “undesir¬ 
ables.”  This  reaction  of  the  public  is,  of  course, 
emotional  and  superficial,  based  partly  on  the  shabby 
and  unkempt  appearance  of  the  men  of  the  road  and 
partly  on  their  reputation  as  beggars,  vagrants, 
drunkards,  and  petty  thieves.  Any  study  of  the 
homeless  man  as  a  citizen  must  go  farther  and  take 
into  account  such  factors  as  nativity,  naturaliza¬ 
tion,  and  patriotism;  legal  residence  and  the  right 
and  opportunity  to  vote;  obedience  to  law;  and  his 
political  aspirations. 

NATIVITY,  NATURALIZATION,  AND  PATRIOTISM 

Students  of  hobos  and  tramps  have  been  struck 
by  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  homeless 
men  are  native-born  Americans.  Mrs.  Solenberger 
found  that  of  1,000,  623  were  native  born.  Of  the 
400  tramps  interviewed  by  the  writer  during  the 
summer  of  1921,  only  61  were  foreign  born  and  23 
of  these  had  taken  out  naturalization  papers.  From 
these  and  other  studies  it  appears  that  from  60  to 
90  per  cent  of  hobos  and  tramps  are  native  born. 

The  tramp  is  an  American  product.  The  foreign- 
born  in  this  group  are  chiefly  of  the  older  immigra¬ 
tion.  Among  these,  Englishmen,  proverbial  as 

I5°l 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


151 


“globe-trotters,”  are  conspicuous.  The  number  of 
homeless  men  from  the  newer  immigration  is  small, 
and  the  individuals  who  are  found  in  the  tramp  and 
hobo  group  seem  often  out  of  place. 

One  test  of  patriotism  is  military  service.  The 
writer  found  that  of  the  400  he  interviewed,  92  had 
seen  military  service.  This  figure  is  high,  since  there 
were  only  183  men  of  the  whole  group  between  the 
ages  of  twenty  and  thirty-four.  These  men  were 
listed  in  1921  and  would  include  many  who  were  not 
in  the  draft  age  when  the  allotments  were  drawn  in 
1918.  There  were  of  the  400,  58  who  were  probably 
under  the  draft  age  in  1918.  When  we  consider  the 
proportion  of  physically  and  mentally  unfit,  it  seems 
that  this  figure  is  high.1 

THE  HOBO  AND  HIS  VOTE 

What  is  the  status  of  the  hobo  as  a  voter  ?  He 
seldom  remains  in  one  place  long  enough  to  acquire 
legal  residence.  His  work,  because  of  its  seasonal 
character,  often  takes  him  away  from  his  legal  resi¬ 
dence  just  at  the  time  when  he  should  be  there  to 
register  or  vote.  Whether  he  has  a  desire  to  cast  his 
ballot  or  not,  he  is  seldom  able  to  do  so. 

A  canvass  of  thirty-five  Hobohemian  hotels  in 
Chicago  has  shown  that  about  a  third  of  the  guests 
are  voters.  In  March,  1923,  there  were  3,029 
registered  voters  from  these  hotels,  which  have  a 
total  capacity  of  9,480.  Many  of  these,  though  they 
are  in  the  city  only  in  winter  or  for  a  few  weeks  at 

1  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  400  include  tramps  in  transit  who  are, 
perhaps,  the  better  and  most  fit  of  all  the  types.  At  least  there  would  be  in 
such  a  group  a  greater  number  of  able-bodied  men  than  in  any  400  selected  at 
random  in  the  “stem”  of  one  of  our  cities.  Again,  400  is  not  a  sufficient  number 
to  permit  more  than  a  tentative  conclusion. 


152 


THE  HOBO 


a  time,  manage  to  maintain  a  residence  here  and, 
if  they  are  in  the  city  during  an  election,  they  vote. 

Charges  are  even  made  that  tramps  and  hobos 
sell  their  votes,  that  they  often  engage  in  “repeat¬ 
ing.”  There  is  not  as  much  ground  for  such  charges 
as  one  would  expect.  The  average  tramp  does  not 
have  the  courage  to  take  the  chances  that  the 
“repeater”  must  expect  to  run.  He  realizes  also 
that  he  is  always  under  more  or  less  suspicion  even 
when  he  is  going  straight,  and  this  serves  as  a  brake. 

Homeless  men  as  a  group  make  much  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  excluded  from  the  ballot,  and  they  re¬ 
mind  all  who  have  the  patience  to  listen  that  the  exclu¬ 
sion  is  unjust  because  they  perform  an  important  and 
legitimate  function  in  the  labor  world.  They  seem 
to  protest  against  their  exclusion  more  than  to  de¬ 
mand  the  ballot.  One  man  said  that  he  did  not  know 
if  he  would  vote  if  he  had  a  chance,  “but  it’s  the 
principle  of  the  thing.” 

The  International  Brotherhood  Welfare  Associa¬ 
tion  has  repeatedly  stood  for  some  form  of  universal 
suffrage  that  would  permit  migratory  workers  to 
vote,  regardless  of  the  length  of  their  residence  in  a 
community. 

During  the  latter  part  of  May,  1922,  a  convention  of  the 
Farmer-Labor  Party  was  held  in  Chicago.  Certain  members 
of  the  hobo  group  failed  in  the  attempt  to  get  a  resolution 
through  the  convention  in  favor  of  giving  the  vote  to  migratory 
workers.  Certain  delegates  feared  that  the  hobo  was  too  irre¬ 
sponsible  to  use  the  ballot.  The  farmer  element  in  the  Farmer- 
Labor  Party  resented  the  idea  of  giving  support  to  the  tramp 
group  by  whom  they  had  been  harassed  so  much  in  the  harvest 
fields.  Nor  is  the  I.W.W.  particularly  interested  in  “votes  for 
the  hobos,”  because  in  their  opinion  the  ballot  is  at  best  an  indi¬ 
rect  method  of  accomplishing  what  can  be  easier  secured  by  direct 
action. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


153 


Forty-eight  of  the  400  homeless  men  studied  by 
the  writer  claimed  to  have  voted  in  the  presidential 
election  of  1920. 

56.  One  of  the  men  interviewed  in  this  study  said:  “I  hap¬ 
pened  to  drop  into  Salt  Lake  the  last  day  of  the  registration  so  I 
got  my  name  on  the  dotted  line.  I  swore  I  had  been  in  the  state 
a  year.  They  couldn’t  prove  I  wasn’t,  so  it  passed.  I’d  been 
in  ten  or  fifteen  states  that  year.  Well,  when  election  came  I  was 
working  in  Bingham.  My  boss  was  short  of  help  and  didn’t 
want  me  to  lay  off  to  vote,  so  I  quit  and  went  to  Salt  Lake.  Got 
there  just  before  the  polls  closed.” 

One  man  said  that  he  beat  his  way  1,000  miles  to 
cast  his  ballot.  Most  of  the  48,  however,  had  voted 
because  at  election  time  they  were  living  in  or  near 
their  legal  residence.  What  was  the  attitude  of  the 
352  who  did  not  vote  ?  The  following  are  the  reasons 
given  (with  reference  to  1920  election):1 


No  desire  to  vote  and  no  legal  residence .  28 

Having  legal  residence  but  no  desire  to  vote .  54 

No  legal  residence  but  desire  to  vote .  129 

Under  twenty-one .  88 

Aliens .  38* 

In  military  service .  9 

Disfranchised .  2 

Not  known .  4 

Total .  352 

*  Sixty -one  foreign-born  in  400;  23  naturalized. 


There  were  28  men  both  ineligible  to  vote  and 
indifferent  to  the  ballot.  The  group  of  54  who  had  no 
desire  to  vote  included  men  who  were  at  home,  or 
near  their  legal  residence,  and  could  have  voted  had 
they  been  interested.  The  two  listed  as  disfran- 


1  From  an  unpublished  study  by  the  author  of  400  tramps,  Document  1 1 5 . 


154 


THE  HOBO 


chised  were  both  men  who  had  been  dishonorably 
discharged  from  the  navy.  Both  were  under  twenty- 
one  and  had  enlisted  under  the  pressure  of  wartime 
enthusiasm.  One  of  these  was  not  interested  in  vot¬ 
ing  and  the  other  said  that  the  vote  was  a  joke 
anyway. 


THE  HOMELESS  MAN  AND  THE  LAW 

The  migratory  worker  is  not  saddled  with  respon¬ 
sibility  for  law  and  order.  As  he  makes  his  way 
about  the  country,  he  is  unincumbered.  He  has 
nothing  to  lose  and  nothing  to  protect  but  his  per¬ 
son,  and  that  he  protects  best  by  constantly  moving. 
The  homeless  man  has  no  interest  in  common  with 
the  settled  man  of  the  community  who  has  attach¬ 
ments  and  property,  and  at  whose  expense  he  often 
lives.  The  migratory  worker,  for  a  time,  may  be 
physically  a  part  of  a  community,  but  he  actually 
does  not  become  absorbed  into  its  social  life.  The 
wanderer  who  fails  to  win  a  place  in  the  life  of  a 
community  often  takes  his  own  course.  This 
course  is  sometimes  in  harmony  with  the  interests 
of  the  community,  but  more  often  counter  to  them, 
and  he  fails  under  the  surveillance  of  the  law. 

To  the  tramp  and  the  hobo  the  police  are  the 
guardian  angels  of  organized  society,  created  to 
protect  the  community  against  criminals  and 
migrants.  To  him  there  are  two  varieties  of 
police — civil  and  private.  The  uniformed  upholder 
of  the  law,  the  civil  police,  is  given  the  uncomplimen¬ 
tary  epithet,  “harness  bull.”  The  plain-clothes  men 
are  called  “dicks,”  “fly  cops,”  and  “stool  pigeons.” 
The  private  police  who  protect  the  property  of  the 
railroad  are  held  in  even  lower  contempt. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


155 


THE  PRIVATE  POLICE 

The  chief  job  of  the  “dicks”  is  to  keep  the  “bos” 
off  the  trains.  The  private  police  are  unpopular, 
not  only  among  homeless  men,  but  also  among  the 
employees  of  the  railroads.  Brakemen  and  switch¬ 
men  will  often  aid  tramps  in  their  effort  to  avoid  the 
police.  Railroad  police  must  often  contend  with  a 
lack  of  co-operation  by  the  civil  police.  The  town 
police,  or  “town  clown”  as  he  is  called,  may  order 
the  tramps  to  leave  on  the  “next  train,”  while  the 
railroad  police  may  be  making  every  effort  to  prevent 
their  riding  the  trains.  The  town  police  are  not 
anxious  to  fill  the  jail;  they  prefer  that  the  transients 
move  on;  they  reason  that  the  railroad  should  take 
away  what  the  railroad  brought. 

The  railroad  policeman  shows  results,  not  by  the 
number  of  convictions  as  the  civil  police,  but  by  his 
ability  to  keep  at  a  minimum  the  number  of  offenses 
against  railroad  property.  His  endeavor  is  to  put 
fear  into  the  hearts  of  all  trespassers  on  the  right-of- 
way.  He  becomes  a  hunter  of  men,  not  to  seize  and 
detain  them,  but  to  pursue  and  terrorize  them.  He 
is  to  the  railroad  property  what  the  scarecrow  is  to 
the  cornfield. 

Railroad  police  sometimes  drive  men  off  fast- 
moving  trains  by  throwing  stones  or  shooting  at 
them.  Not  infrequently  they  catch  and  maltreat  a 
tramp;  however,  they  are  seldom  able  to  get  hold  of 
a  veteran  tramp.  The  inexperienced  man  or  the 
boy  is  more  likely  to  be  caught.  These  means  of 
putting  fear  into  men  do  not  stop  tramping.  As  they 
become  fearful  of  the  railroad  “bull,”  they  become 
more  cautious,  and  the  “bull’s”  problem  is  increas¬ 
ingly  difficult. 


156 


THE  HOBO 


WHAT  THE  TRAMP  THINKS  OF  THE 
PRIVATE  POLICE 

To  migrants  the  railroad  is  “the  tramp’s  tradi¬ 
tional  highway.”  The  tramp,  however,  expects 
opposition  from  the  railroad  police  and  even  from 
the  train  crews;  nevertheless  he  measures  his  success 
as  a  “boomer”  by  his  ability  to  outwit  this  opposi¬ 
tion.  Encounters  with  the  railroad  police  are  a 
favorite  theme  of  conversation  in  the  “jungles”  and 
along  the  “stem.” 

One  man  tells  of  being  held  in  Hutchinson, 
Kansas,  on  suspicion: 

57.  A  bunch  of  us  came  in  on  a  freight  and  started  up  town. 
It  was  about  midnight  and  the  moon  was  shining.  We  were 
sneaking  along  the  shade  of  a  row  of  box  cars.  A  couple  of  men 
halted  us  and  ordered  us  to  come  out  into  the  light.  I  had  a 
notion  to  run  but  one  of  the  other  fellows  said  they  had  “gats” 
and  we’d  better  take  no  chances.  It  was  a  good  thing  we  didn’t 
run  because  we  found  out  that  a  couple  of  men  had  escaped 
from  the  jail.  All  the  police  and  a  lot  of  the  citizens  had  been 
drafted  to  find  them.  Most  of  them  carried  guns  and  nothing 
would  have  suited  them  better  than  to  have  had  some  one  to 
shoot  at. 

They  rounded  up  about  ten  “bos”  out  of  the  yards  and  took 
us  to  a  room  in  the  depot  where  they  held  us  for  about  an  hour 
till  one  of  the  guards  came  from  the  jail.  He  did  not  see  the 
escaped  men  in  the  crowd  so  we  were  turned  loose.  The  rail¬ 
road  “bull”  ordered  us  to  walk  out  of  town.  We  walked  out  a 
ways  and  then  sneaked  back  and  caught  a  freight. 

I  think  we  got  off  easy.  I  had  a  buddy  once  who  was  held  a 
week  until  the  police  could  get  a  picture.  He  was  caught  by 
the  railroad  “bull”  and  turned  over  to  the  “town  clown.” 
They  are  always  sorry  if  they  can’t  get  someting  on  a  “bo” 
they  hold. 

Youths  in  their  first  adventures  on  the  road  accept 
with  zest  the  conflict  with  the  private  police.  A 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


157 


student  who  made  a  practice  of  “working  the 
harvest”  each  summer  gives  the  following  statement: 

58.  My  first  experience  with  a  bull  was  at  Marshalltown, 
Iowa.  I  had  been  selling  books  up  near  Mason  City,  Iowa,  and 
after  three  weeks  of  that  loathsome  occupation,  I  threw  my 
prospectus  into  the  ditch  and  started  for  home.  Late  one  night 
I  caught  an  express  train  on  the  Northwestern  from  Ames,  Iowa, 
bound  for  Chicago,  and  rode  from  there  to  Marshalltown; 
unfortunately  the  train  pulled  into  the  station  very  slowly  and 
the  long  string  of  lights  on  the  station  platform  shed  a  great  deal 
of  light  on  the  train.  I  started  to  get  off  when  a  rough  voice 
cursing  loudly  told  me  to  get  off  on  that  side.  He  took  me  by  the 
shoulder  and  asked  me  what  in  hell  I  was  doing  riding  on  that 
train.  “Don’t  you  know,”  he  said,  “what  we  do  with  fellows 
who  ride  the  front  ends  of  these  trains  ?”  He  gave  me  a  kick  and 
told  me  to  get  out  of  the  yards.  It  was  my  first  encounter  with 
the  “bulls”  and  I  have  since  learned  that  “bull”  tactics  are  very 
much  the  same. 

Another  time  I  crawled  off  the  train  into  the  waiting  arms  of 
a  Rock  Island  “bull”  in  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa.  He  showed  me 
his  star  and  searched  me  over  carefully,  feeling  every  lump  in  my 
clothing.  During  the  search  he  said,  “Will  you  give  me  all  I  find 
on  you  ?”  The  question  rather  startled  me  but  I  quickly 
replied,  “Yes.”  Finding  nothing,  he  seemed  disappointed  and 
said,  “I  can’t  understand  why  you  haven’t  more  money  on  you! 
What  are  you,  anyway  ?”  I  told  him  I  was  a  college  student 
looking  for  work.  “The  hell  you  are!”  he  sneered,  “you’re  a 
Weary  Willie,  now  get  out  of  here,  quick.” 

At  Grand  Island  some  fifty  of  us  tried  to  ride  a  merchandise 
freight  out  of  the  yards,  when  an  energetic  “bull”  pulled  him¬ 
self  out  of  a  car  and  waved  a  revolver  wildly  warning  all  not  to 
get  on.  It  was  a  long  freight  and  the  men  strung  themselves 
up  and  down  the  track  the  full  length  of  it.  In  spite  of  his 
efforts,  several  got  aboard.  My  companion  and  I  were  quite 
close  to  him  and  made  no  effort  to  get  on. 

My  next  encounter  occurred  at  Bureau,  Illinois,  a  division 
point  on  the  Rock  Island.  There  were  four  of  us  on  the  tender 
(behind  the  engine),  my  room  mate  and  I  and  two  lads  who  had 
jumped  on  some  miles  down  the  line.  They  had  been  jumping 
on  and  off  and  having  a  good  time  generally.  Both  of  them  had 


158 


THE  HOBO 


on  white  shirts  and  could  be  easily  recognized  by  the  train  men. 
At  Bureau  a  rough  looking  “  bull”  poked  his  head  over  the  tender, 
waved  a  gun,  cursed  madly  and  told  us  to  get  down  from  there. 
We  were  lying  flat  on  one  corner  and  I  did  not  believe  he  had 
seen  us.  The  two  boys  did  as  they  were  told  while  I  held  my 
room  mate  down  and  told  him  not  to  move.  I  heard  him 
swearing  at  the  boys  as  the  train  pulled  out. 

With  a  companion  I  left  a  Rock  Island  freight  one  afternoon 
to  get  a  drink  of  water.  We  came  back  to  see  our  train  far  up 
the  track  toward  Des  Moines.  I  noticed  by  my  table  that  an 
express  train  would  soon  be  in.  My  companion  was  a  long,  lean 
individual,  a  bluffing,  blustering  type  probably  weighing  about 
175  pounds.  A  “bull”  was  waiting  for  us  at  Valley  Junction, 
just  outside  of  Des  Moines.  He  pulled  us  off  and  marched  us 
out  in  front  of  all  the  passengers  and  into  the  station.  We  both 
noticed  that  we  had  climbed  a  mail  train  and  that  our  future  was 
not  very  bright.  The  station  agent  was  not  in  and  I  sized 
Mr.  “Bull”  up  as  he  searched  us.  He  was  a  young  fellow,  not 
over  twenty-five  and  did  not  look  nearly  as  hard  as  he  talked. 
My  companion  was  as  pale  as  a  sheet  and  would  say  nothing. 
I  talked  to  him  as  best  I  could,  and  after  scaring  us  to  the  best  of 
his  ability  he  finally  turned  us  loose,  actually  buying  us  a  ticket  on 
the  auto  bus  to  Des  Moines.  He  acted  almost  human  toward  us. 

A  man,  prominent  in  Hobohemia  as  a  soap-boxer, 
recites  this  experience  out  of  a  great  number  that  he 
has  had  with  railroad  and  other  private  police. 

59.  I  was  traveling  in  Indiana  with  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Sullivan,  known  around  the  country  as  “Sully.”  We  got  off 
at  Flora,  a  railroad  town  in  Indiana.  It  was  cold  and  the  town 
was  “hostile”  because  so  many  “bos”  had  been  there  that  the 
people  were  hardened  to  them.  We  knew  better  than  to  hang 
around  the  railroad  yards  so  we  decided  to  go  out  of  town  a  ways 
and  build  a  fire  to  keep  warm  while  we  waited  for  a  train.  We 
started  out  but  Sully  decided  to  return  and  learn  from  the  switch¬ 
man  when  a  train  would  be  leaving.  I  said  that  I  would  go  out 
along  the  track  and  build  a  wind  break  with  some  old  ties  and 
make  a  fire. 

I  dragged  some  ties  together  and  had  the  wind  break  up  by 
the  time  Sully  returned.  I  had  the  fire  going  too  and  was  taking 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


159 


off  my  shoes.  I  had  stepped  in  some  water  while  dragging  ties 
and  my  feet  were  wet  and  cold. 

Everything  went  fine  for  about  half  an  hour.  I  was  drying 
my  shoes  and  socks  and  Sully  and  I  were  talking  about  where  we 
were  going  and  what  to  do.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  Steel 
Strike,  and  Sully  was  planning  on  going  up  there  to  get  a  job 
as  a  “scab  herder.”  He  said  that  by  that  means  he  would  get 
in  with  the  company  and  that  he  could  work  some  “sabotage” 
in  the  interest  of  the  workers.  At  that  time  I  was  traveling  and 
selling  literature,  and  holding  street  meetings  in  the  interests  of 
the  I.B.W.A. 

All  of  a  sudden  something  hit  me  in  the  back  between  the 
shoulder  blades.  I  looked  around  quickly  and  there  were  two 
“  bulls.”  We  were  on  railroad  property  and  I  knew  we  were  in  for 
it.  Sully  ducked  and  went  over  the  fence.  I  had  my  shoes  off 
and  couldn’t  run.  One  of  them  gave  me  another  tap  on  the 
back  with  a  black  jack.  “What  are  you  here  for?”  “I  am 
drying  my  shoes,”  was  the  only  answer  I  could  think  of.  As  I 
hurried  to  get  my  shoes  on  one  of  them  slapped  me  on  the  side 
of  the  head.  I  jumped  and  ran  while  they  cursed  me  and  told 
me  never  to  let  them  catch  me  again.  I  met  Sully  an  hour  later 
and  together  we  cursed  all  railroad  “bulls”  as  cowards  and 
sneaks. 

Sometime  after  that  I  was  told  by  a  friend  that  Sully  was  an 
employee  of  the  Pinkerton  agency.  I  did  not  believe  it  but 
before  a  year  was  out  I  heard  it  from  two  or  three  sources.  I 
made  an  effort  to  find  out  and  I  learned  it  was  true;  that  he  was 
in  their  employ  at  the  time  we  got  chased.  Then  it  came  to  me 
why  he  went  back  to  talk  to  the  switchmen  and  how  he  got  away 
without  being  hit.  He  was  traveling  with  me  because  he  was 
trying  to  get  a  line  on  me  as  an  agitator. 

These  stories  are  typical  of  those  that  any  expe¬ 
rienced  tramp  can  tell. 

The  private  police  “talks  by  hand”  because  it  is 
the  most  practical  method  at  his  command.  The 
argument  of  the  club  coincides  most  admirably  with 
the  mood  he  is  in  when  on  duty  searching  trains 
and  keeping  trespassers  off  railroad  property.  He 


160 


THE  HOBO 


is  a  hunter  and  the  tramp  is  his  prey.  If  it  is 
a  game  to  the  police,  it  is  no  less  so  to  the  tramp. 
One  lad  who  had  been  caught  a  time  or  two  said: 
“I  get  a  lot  of  ‘kick’  out  of  riding  trains  out  of 
a  place  when  I  know  the  ‘dicks’  are  trying  to  keep 
me  off.” 

When  a  town  has  a  railroad  policeman  who  is 
“hard,”  the  fact  is  soon  noised  about.  A  few  years 
ago,  Galesburg,  Illinois,  was  known  throughout  the 
country  for  the  “bad”  colored  policeman  who 
guarded  the  yards.  The  hobo  who  could  tell  a 
story  of  an  encounter  with  the  big  “nigger  bull”  had 
an  exploit  to  be  proud  of.  For  some  time  Green 
River,  Wyoming,  boasted  a  “hard  bull”  known  to 
the  “floating  fraternity”  as  “Green  River  Slim.” 
As  the  reputation  of  a  “bad”  policeman  travels 
ahead,  so  the  information  about  his  tactics  and  meth¬ 
ods.  Where  he  may  be  found,  how  avoided,  how  he 
watches  the  trains,  are  usually  common  knowledge 
to  the  average  “bo”  before  he  reaches  a  town. 

ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRIVATE  POLICE 

The  Hobo  News  for  April,  1922,  reprinted  an 
article  “The  Hobo;  a  Real  Problem  to  the  Rail¬ 
road,”  by  T.  T.  Kelihor,  chief  special  agent  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad.  The  article  was  given 
space  in  the  News  in  order  that  the  hobos  might  see 
how  the  “bulls”  regarded  them.  It  was  followed  by 
a  caustic  criticism  from  the  editor  who  charged  that 
the  writer  “like  the  rest  of  his  fraternity  cannot 
distinguish  between  Hobos  and  Bums  and  Tramps 
and  Yeggs.” 

The  railroads  of  this  country  are  the  chief  sufferers  from  this 
cancerous  social  growth.  There  is  no  property  right  or  other 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


161 


rights  of  the  railroad  that  the  modern  hobo  feels  called  upon 
to  consider  or  respect.  Millions  of  dollars’  worth  of  rail¬ 
way  property  and  merchandise  in  transit  are  destroyed  and 
stolen  annually  by  this  class.  The  actual  value  of  merchan¬ 
dise  stolen  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  loss  of  merchandise 
in  trains. 

The  average  hobo  realizes  that  he  is  not  provided  with  means 
of  carrying  away  a  large  amount  of  bulky  goods.  Consequently 
when  hobos  enter  a  merchandise  car,  they  break  open  a  great 
many  cases  and  dump  or  throw  out  the  contents  on  the  floor  in 
searching  for  small,  compact,  valuable  goods  that  they  can  carry 
off  concealed  about  their  persons.  It  often  happens  that  they 
will  not  take  more  than  $50.00  value  in  valuable  articles,  but 
they  will  destroy  and  damage  $500.00  worth  of  goods  by  destroy¬ 
ing  the  original  containers  and  soiling  the  contents  by  trampling 
on  them  on  the  dirty  floor  of  the  car  and  otherwise  damaging 
them. 

The  amount  of  property  the  tramp  actually  steals 
and  destroys  is  not  known.  He  probably  is  blamed 
for  more  damage  than  he  does.  Those  who  speak  for 
the  hobo  class  claim  that  most  of  the  goods  stolen 
from  cars  is  taken  by  train  crews  who  shield  them¬ 
selves  by  pointing  to  the  tramp,  who  is  already  an 
outlaw  as  far  as  the  railroad  is  concerned,  because  he 
steals  rides.  Aside  from  the  loss  of  property,  Mr. 
Kelihor  calls  attention  to  the  great  loss  of  life  attrib¬ 
uted  to  tramping. 

The  loss  of  life  and  limb  on  account  of  hobos  riding 
trains  and  trespassing  on  the  right-of-way,  and  the 
consequent  financial  and  economic  loss  to  the  country 
and  the  railroads,  is  appalling.  The  reports  for  all 
railroads  during  1919  show: 


Trespassers  killed .  .  2>553 

Trespassers  injured .  2 , 658 

Total .  5,211 


162 


THE  HOBO 


And  during  1920: 


Trespassers  killed .  2,166 

Trespassers  injured .  2,362 

Total .  4,528 


During  1921,  on  the  Illinois  Central  and  the  Yazoo  and 
Mississippi  railroads,  98  trespassers  were  killed  and  221  injured. 

How  many  of  these  persons  killed  were  actually 
hobos,  perhaps  even  the  railroads  could  not  say.  To 
the  railroad  officials  anyone  is  a  trespasser  on  rail¬ 
road  property  who  is  not  a  patron  or  an  employee. 
On  the  other  hand,  all  the  instances  of  tramps  killed 
or  injured  on  the  railroad  are  not  recorded. 

In  a  communication  of  August  2,  1922,  to  the 
Homeless  Man  Committee,  W.  P.  Riggs,  chief  special 
agent  of  the  American  Express  Company,  says  in 
part: 

On  our  more  important  exclusive  trains  we  have  inspectors 
employed  to  ride  them  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  tramps  and 
other  unauthorized  persons  off  such  trains.  As  in  the  past  we 
have  suffered  serious  loss  through  such  parties  breaking  into  our 
sealed  cars  and  robbing  them.  There  have  also  been  instances 
where  parties  under  the  guise  of  tramps  beating  their  way  around 
the  country  turned  out  to  be  real  bandits,  who  would  at  the 
opportune  time  hold  up  the  mail  clerks  and  messengers. 

The  tramp  situation  is  the  worst  in  this  section  during  the 
spring,  summer,  and  fall;  yet  we  also  have  more  or  less  trouble 
with  them  in  winter  months. 

Generally  speaking,  we  do  not  receive  much  assistance  from 
civil  authorities  in  combatting  tramps. 

J.  H.  Hustin,  Jr.,  superintendent  of  property 
protection  for  the  New  York  Central  Railroad, 
writes  the  committee  as  follows: 

It  is  the  endeavor  of  our  police  officers  to  keep  the  tramp  off 
our  right-of-way.  Many  of  our  freight  trains  on  the  Western 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


163 


territory  are  protected  by  police  officers  enroute  between  termi¬ 
nals,  and  it  is  part  of  their  duty  to  keep  such  train  riders  off  our 
trains.  Usually  the  tramp  is  placed  under  arrest  and  taken 
before  the  local  authorities  for  disposition. 

During  the  spring  and  fall  we  experience  most  of  our  difficul¬ 
ties  with  train  riders,  especially  in  connection  with  the  opening 
and  closing  of  navigation. 

In  general,  we  receive  the  co-operation  of  the  city  authorities. 
When  business  is  quiet  and  a  large  number  of  men  are  out  of 
work,  we  obtain  little  direct  assistance  from  the  local  police  and 
courts;  while,  when  business  is  good  and  there  is  little  unemploy¬ 
ment,  such  co-operation  is  very  satisfactory. 

THE  CIVIL  AUTHORITIES  AND  THE  TRAMP 

The  average  man  on  the  street,  or  the  average 
housewife,  sees  in  the  tramp  either  a  parasite  or  a 
predacious  individual.  The  average  man  may  admit 
that  there  are  many  migratory  men  who  would 
work,  but  he  feels  that  most  of  them  will  not,  and 
that  they  have  neither  permanent  habits  nor  good 
intentions;  they  need  to  be  watched.  If  the  public 
opinion  decrees  that  the  town  needs  to  be  protected 
against  tramps,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  police  to  do  it. 
There  seems  to  be  a  relation  between  the  pressure 
that  the  police  bring  to  bear  on  the  tramp  and  the 
pressure  that  the  tramps  impose  upon  the  community 
which  is  reflected  in  the  pressure  the  residents  place 
on  the  police.  In  towns  where  vagrancy  has  become 
a  problem,  the  police  are  very  energetic  in  keeping 
down  the  number  of  apparently  idle  men. 

In  small  towns,  especially  railroad  towns,  through 
which  many  tramps  move,  the  police  are  “  hostile. ” 
A  policeman  in  a  Wyoming  town  on  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  asserts:  “We’ve  got  to  be  hard  on  these 
fellows  or  they  will  eat  us  out  of  house  and  home  in 
a  week.”  In  the  larger  towns  the  police  are  sporadic 


164 


THE  HOBO 


in  their  harshness.  Men  of  the  road  will  ask  one 
another  about  the  attitude  of  the  police  in  certain 
cities.  “Omaha  was  good  the  first  part  of  the 
winter,”  reported  a  man  in  a  circle  about  a  camp 
fire,  “I  think  I’ll  go  to  Chi  this  winter  if  I  don’t  go 
to  the  Coast.  I  heard  they  were  pretty  easy  on 
them  there  last  winter.”  Again,  “I  was  in  Chicago 
the  most  of  the  winter.  They  are  all  right  there  if 
you  stay  on  the  ‘stem.’”  “How  has  K.  C.  been 
lately  ?  I  haven’t  been  there  for  five  years.” 

The  average  hobo  will  often  avoid  certain  towns 
because  he  has  heard  that  the  “bo”  will  not  be  well 
received.  Fie  will  sometimes  go  to  a  town  even  when 
he  has  heard  of  its  drastic  method  of  treating  the 
transients.  A  “hard”  police  force  and  a  drastic 
policy  of  repression  do  not  keep  tramps  away.  It 
selects  out  those  who  are  willing  to  run  the  risk. 
Timid  and  inexperienced  men  are  kept  away,  but  the 
daring  and  veteran  tramps  who  cause  the  police  the 
most  trouble  are  not  so  readily  frightened  off. 

The  police  do  not  regard  the  tramp  as  a  serious 
offender.  If  he  steals,  it  is  generally  for  something 
to  eat  or  to  wear.  Every  man  on  the  road  steals 
potatoes  or  green  corn  from  the  nearby  fields,  or 
fruit  from  the  neighboring  orchard,  or  chickens  that 
stray  within  reach  of  the  jungle. 

Tramps  will  boast  about  what  they  will  do  when 
times  get  hard  and  cold  weather  crowds  them.  “I 
won’t  starve.  I  worked  all  summer,  and  I  won’t  go 
hungry  this  winter.”  This  man  was  “broke”  in 
spite  of  a  summer’s  hard  labor  in  the  harvest  fields. 
His  earnings  quickly  went  for  drink.  He  did  get 
hungry,  and  his  clothes  were  torn  to  tatters  before 
spring,  but  he  did  not  break  in  any  windows  as  he  had 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


165 


threatened.  There  are  “crooks”  among  the  tramps, 
but  not  so  many  as  might  be  supposed.  The  average 
tramp  does  not  possess  the  courage  to  be  a  first-class 
crook. 

Warden  Wesley  Westbrook,  of  the  Cook  County 
jail,  supports  this  estimate  of  the  tramp  as  an  offender: 

I  am  convinced  that  the  tramp  does  not  have  the  courage  to 
be  a  criminal.  He  will  steal  something  to  eat  or  wear,  and  he 
may  steal  a  door  mat  or  some  article  he  may  sell  for  a  quarter  to 
get  a  coffee  an’;  or,  if  he  is  drinking,  to  get  the  price  of  a  pint  of 
whiskey.  But  tramps  do  not  become  criminal  in  the  serious 
sense.  They  make  noise  and  threats  sometimes  but  I  have  found 
them  an  easy  group  to  get  along  with.  It  takes  considerable 
courage  to  break  into  a  house  or  to  hold  a  person  up  and  the 
tramp  will  not  do  this.  He  seems  to  think  that  he  can  get  a 
living  easier  and  with  less  risk. 

But  whether  a  major  offender  or  not,  the  fact  is 
that  the  homeless  man  is  almost  always  liable  to 
arrest  as  a  vagrant.  He  is  marked  as  a  potential 
offender.  He  always  faces  the  possibility  of  being 
arrested  on  suspicion.  Where  the  ex-convict  is 
harassed  by  the  authorities  because  they  have  his 
record,  the  tramp  is  often  held  because  they  do  not 
have  his  record.  Often  migrants  are  taken  from 
freight  trains  and  transported  many  miles  to  the 
scenes  of  some  offense  only  to  be  turned  loose.  Often 
they  are  held  for  days  in  local  jails  until  they  can 
prove  an  alibi  or  their  identity  can  be  established. 
For  them  there  is  no  redress. 

The  status  of  the  homeless  man  in  the  courts  is 
not  high.  Again  and  again  men  are  arraigned  before 
the  judge  for  vagrancy,  fighting,  drunkenness,  beg¬ 
ging,  petty  stealing,  and  other  minor  offenses.  Any 
policeman  can  walk  along  West  Madison  Street  any 
day  and  see  some  man  or  perhaps  a  dozen  who  could 


166 


THE  HOBO 


be  arrested  on  some  charge.  If  all  policemen  did 
this  the  jails  would  be  full  and  the  police  courts  in 
which  these  cases  are  tried  would  be  continually  over¬ 
flowing.  Only  the  most  conspicuous  cases  are 
arrested.  Those  are  numerous  enough  to  keep  an 
average  judge  busy  in  an  average  police  court. 

The  judge  who  sits  in  the  Desplaines  Street  police 
court,  where  more  tramps  are  arraigned  than  in  any 
other  court  in  Chicago,  faces  sometimes  as  many  as 
ioo  men  whose  cases  must  be  disposed  of  within  a 
few  hours.  One  morning  the  investigator  visited 
Judge  LaBuy’s  court  in  the  Desplaines  Street  sta¬ 
tion  and  saw  more  than  fifty  cases  of  vagrancy,  dis¬ 
orderly  conduct,  drunkenness,  etc.,  disposed  of  in  less 
than  half  an  hour.  There  was  little  material  at  hand 
by  which  the  judge  could  arrive  at  a  just  decision, 
consequently  he  disposed  of  the  cases  with  only  that 
evidence  that  was  apparent.  Apparently  neither  the 
needs  of  the  individual  were  being  met  nor  the 
demands  of  justice  satisfied.1 

The  experiences  of  the  tramp  or  hobo  in  the  police 
court  do  not  increase  his  respect  for  the  law  and  the 
administration  of  justice.  He  finds  the  administra¬ 
tion  of  justice  a  mechanical  process.  At  the  points 
where  the  law  touches  his  life  it  has  lost  every  trace 
of  the  human  touch  unless  it  be  the  brutal  “third 
degree”  or  the  traditional  “sixty  days.”  The  courts 
sometimes  put  fear  into  his  heart  but  they  do  not 
reform  him. 

What  status  as  a  citizen  does  the  hobo  wish  ?  His 
attitude  toward  the  police  and  his  reaction  toward 
the  civil  authorities  that  represent  organized  society 
seem  to  be  tempered  with  antipathy.  Most  of  the 

1  Unpublished  Document  80. 


THE  HOBO  PROBLEM 


167 


songs  he  sings  are  songs  of  protest.  The  organiza¬ 
tions  to  which  he  allies  himself  are  antagonistic  to 
things  as  they  are. 

In  many  ways,  the  migratory  worker  is  “a  man 
without  a  country. ”  By  the  very  nature  of  his 
occupation  he  is  deprived  of  the  ballot,  and  liable 
when  not  at  work  to  arrest  for  vagrancy  and  tres¬ 
passing.  The  public  ignores  him  generally,  but  now 
and  again  pities  or  is  hostile  to  him.  With  no  status 
in  organized  society,  he  longs  for  a  classless  society 
where  all  inequalities  shall  be  abolished.  In  the 
I.W.W.  and  other  radical  organizations,  he  finds  in 
association  with  restless  men  of  his  own  kind  the 
recognition  everywhere  else  denied  him. 


PART  IV 

HOW  THE  HOBO  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


CHAPTER  XII 

PERSONALITIES  OF  HOBOHEMIA 


LIKE  other  communities,  Hobohemia  has  its  emi¬ 
nent  persons.  In  the  flux  and  flow  of  the  life 
on  the  “main  stem”  certain  individuals  are  conspicu¬ 
ous.  They  are  for  the  most  part  the  soap-box 
orators,  the  organizers  and  promoters  of  utopias. 
These  men  are  the  most  loved  or  the  most  hated  of 
all  the  Hobohemian  celebrities.  They  are  either 
overwhelmingly  approved  or  are  unsparingly  con¬ 
demned  as  grafters  and  parasites.  But  whether 
exploiters  or  benefactors  they  are  centers  of  interest. 
They  are  powers.  Among  the  many  men  of  this 
group  are:  James  Eads  How,  Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman, 
John  X.  Kelly,  Michael  C.  Walsh,  Daniel  Horsley, 
and  A.  W.  Dragstedt. 

Outside  of  these  leaders  of  the  migratory  workers 
are  mission  workers,  like  Charles  W.  Langsman,  of 
the  Bible  Rescue  Mission;  and  John  Van  de  Water, 
of  the  Helping  Hand  Mission;  and  Brigadier  J.  E. 
Atkins,  of  the  Salvation  Army,  which  is  neither  a 
mission  nor  a  church. 

It  has  been  the  policy  of  the  Baptist  Church  on 
North  LaSalle  Street  and  the  Immanuel  Baptist 
Church  on  South  Michigan  Avenue  more  than  other 
churches  to  feed  homeless  men.  Dr.  Johnston  Myers 
is  pastor  of  the  latter  church,  and  probably  the  most 
talked-of  minister  in  Hobohemia  when  times  are 
hard.  Dr.  Myers  is  contrasted  by  homeless  men  with 
the  Greensteins  on  South  State  Street.  “Mother” 
Greenstein’s  “bread  line”  is  known  the  country  over. 

These  or  their  counterparts  may  be  found  in  any 
city  where  hobos  gather. 


172 


THE  HOBO 


DR.  JAMES  EADS  HOW,  “THE  MILLIONAIRE  HOBO” 

How,  a  man  of  wealth  and  education,  renounced 
all  to  share  the  lot  of  the  hobos.  He  is  not  an 
imposing  personality,  but  he  is  a  kindly,  ingratiating, 
almost  saintly  man.  He  is  a  dreamer  and  a  visionary 
with  a  program  for  reforming  the  world.  Every  cent 
that  he  does  not  spend  for  doughnuts  and  twenty-five- 
cent  flops  goes  to  the  “  cause. ”  He  hopes  that  other 
millionaires  will  see  his  good  works  and  imitate  him. 

How  is  a  bachelor  in  his  late  forties.  According 
to  rumor,  which  he  neither  affirms  nor  denies,  he  has 
two  college  degrees,  one  of  them  in  medicine.  He 
plans  soon  to  enter  a  college  for  a  year  to  study  law, 
so  as  to  be  the  better  prepared  to  promote  the  inter¬ 
ests  of  the  International  Brotherhood  Welfare  Asso¬ 
ciation  and  the  “Hobo  College.”  The  I.W.W. 
believes  the  world  will  be  reformed  by  organization 
and  direct  action  first,  and  education  second.  How 
puts  education  first.  He  hopes  to  establish  a  central 
hobo  university  to  which  the  numerous  hobo  colleges 
in  the  large  cities  will  be  feeders. 

To  How  the  hobos  are  a  “chosen  people”  who 
have  been  denied  their  own.  They  will  come  into 
their  own  in  time.  All  his  repeated  failures  to  build 
up  a  strong  organization  of  migratory  workers  have 
not  shaken  his  faith  in  his  vision.  How  still  believes 
that  hobos  and  millionaires  will  sooner  or  later  work 
together  in  harmony  to  construct  the  House  of 
Elappiness  for  humanity. 

DR.  BEN  L.  REITMAN,  “THE  KING  OF  THE  HOBOS” 

With  the  exception  of  James  Eads  How,  “the 
millionaire  hobo,”  Reitman  is  known  to  more  mi¬ 
gratory  workers  than  any  other  man  in  the  country. 


DR.  BEN  L.  REITMAN 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


173 


Several  years  ago,  while  he  was  roaming  casually 
over  the  United  States,  Reitman  was  dubbed  by  the 
papers  the  “King  of  the  Hobos.”  This  title  was 
well  earned  by  more  than  twenty  years  on  the  road, 
including  two  or  three  tramps  around  the  world. 

His  own  description  of  himself  given  to  the 
papers  several  years  ago  still  holds: 

I  am  an  American  by  birth,  a  Jew  by  parentage,  a  Baptist  by 
adoption,  a  physician  and  teacher  by  profession,  cosmopolitan 
by  choice,  a  Socialist  by  inclination,  a  celebrity  by  accident,  a 
tramp  by  twenty  years’  experience,  and  a  reformer  by  inspiration. 

The  only  modification  that  he  would  make  today 
is  that  he  has  settled  into  the  routine  of  his  profession. 
He  still  lectures  at  the  “Hobo  College.”  He  still 
intercedes  for  hobos  and  guarantees  their  bills  in 
case  they  do  not  make  good.  He  is  still  a  refuge  for 
the  sick  and  afflicted  and  not  a  day  passes  that  he 
does  not  treat  some  down-and-outer  free.  He  is  still 
a  reformer  but  he  has  lost  that  “lean,  hungry  look” 
of  his  hobo  days,  and  since  he  owns  a  Ford,  the  hobos 
charge  him  with  being  an  aristocrat. 

JOHN  X.  KELLY,  SOAP-BOXER  AND  ORGANIZER 

John  Kelly  has  been  associated  with  James  Eads 
How  for  more  than  fifteen  years.  Before  he  met  How 
he  was  a  curbstone  orator.  Beating  his  way  from 
city  to  city,  he  has  talked  in  the  “slave  markets”  of 
every  metropolitan  city  in  the  United  States.  He 
has  been  jailed  many  times  for  his  “soap-boxing,” 
and  has  often  been  forced  to  leave  town  between  the 
suns  because  of  free-speech  fights.  He  has  often 
beaten  his  way  1,000  miles  to  be  present  at  a  hobo 
convention  and  to  participate  in  the  demonstrations 
of  the  hobo  against  the  upper  strata  of  society. 


174 


THE  HOBO 


Kelly  is  still  an  organizer,  though  he  is  not  an 
enthusiastic  or  hopeful  one.  He  still  has  faith,  but 
he  is  no  longer  the  staunch  advocate  of  democratic 
hobo  organizations  he  formerly  was.  Years  of  bitter 
experience  have  taught  him  that  the  average  hobo 
will  not  stand  up  under  any  responsibility.  At  one 
time  he  was  an  I.W.W.  soap-boxer,  but  he  no  longer 
believes  that  the  “Wobblies”  are  doing  anything  for 
the  hobo,  and  he  frankly  tells  them  so. 

From  a  champion  of  democracy,  he  has  swung 
over  to  an  advocate  of  benevolent  autocracy.  He  is 
still  active  in  the  ‘‘Hobo  College, ”  but  is  often  at 
variance  with  How  and  opposes  him  bitterly  on 
some  issues. 

How,  an  idealist,  has  never  learned  that  the 
ordinary  hobo  organization  is  almost  sure  to  fail  if 
left  to  manage  itself.  “But,”  says  Kelly,  the  organ¬ 
izer,  “they’ll  never  succeed.  They  will  never  be 
cured  of  quarreling  over  trifles.  They  have  got  to  be 
saved  by  some  other  method  than  their  own  power.” 

MICHAEL  C.  WALSH,  ORGANIZER  AND  PROMOTER 

Walsh  has  long  been  a  factor  in  the  hobo  life  of 
Chicago.  At  present  he  is  the  head  of  a  struggling 
organization  of  workers  known  as  the  United  Brother¬ 
hood  of  American  Laborers,  which  seeks  to  organize 
workers  around  an  insurance  program.  Walsh  desig¬ 
nates  himself  “Journalist  and  Lecturer,  Founder  of 
the  Famous  Hobo  College,”  “The  Society  of  Vaga¬ 
bonds,”  and  “The  Mary  Garden  Forum.”  He 
further  styles  himself,  not  without  reason,  a  graduate 
of  the  “University  of  Adversity.” 

Left  an  orphan  at  an  early  age,  he  began  wander¬ 
ing,  working  casually  at  his  trade  as  an  iron-worker. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


175 


He  traveled  extensively  over  the  United  States  and 
went  abroad  as  a  tramp  worker  and  a  beach-comber. 
In  1906-7,  becoming  interested  in  the  problem  of  the 
down-and-outs,  he  conducted  the  Liberty  Hotel  in 
Seattle  for  the  unemployed.  Later  in  San  Francisco 
he  was  again  active  in  the  interest  of  the  unem¬ 
ployed.  Still  later  he  joined  James  Eads  How  in 
St.  Louis  and  aided  in  organizing  the  “penniless  men 
of  his  own  city.”  In  1915  he  came  to  Chicago  and 
organized  the  “Hobo  College.”  Other  hobos  say 
that  the  “college”  had  been  in  existence  years  be¬ 
fore  Walsh  arrived  on  the  scene,  but  that  he  did 
play  a  part  in  making  it  popular. 

Walsh,  as  president  of  the  “college,”  was  able  to 
attract  the  assistance  of  many  leading  citizens.  He 
won  the  services  of  Mary  Garden,  who  took  special 
pride  in  singing  there  occasionally.  He  has  been 
active  among  the  unemployed,  and  at  one  time 
attracted  considerable  public  notice  which  got  him 
into  disrepute  with  the  local  police. 

Walsh  has  also  sought  the  limelight  as  a  lyceum 
and  chautauqua  lecturer.  His  subjects  dealt  with 
the  various  aspect  of  the  hobo  problem.  Walsh, 
like  many  of  the  hobo  celebrities,  only  sees  in  the 
tramp  problem  one  cause,  and  that  is,  unemployment. 
“Give  the  boys  plenty  of  jobs  and  there  will  be  no 
tramps.”  This  is  a  popular  interpretation  among 
the  tramps  themselves. 

DANIEL  HORSLEY,  “PROFESSOR” 

AND  BOOKDEALER 

Daniel  Horsley  is  a  bookseller.  His  establish¬ 
ment,  at  1237  West  Madison  Street,  is  called  the 
hobo  bookstore.  The  place  is  known  as  the  “Pro- 


176 


THE  HOBO 


letariat”  to  the  men  on  the  “stem.”  Here  many 
men  who  have  no  other  address  receive  their  mail. 

Says  one  man,  “Where  is - lately,  Dan  ?”  “  I  don't 

know,  but  I  suppose  he  is  on  his  way  to  Chicago. 
I  have  had  some  mail  for  him  for  two  weeks.”  The 
men  meet  their  friends  at  the  “Proletariat,”  or  they 
leave  things  there  for  safekeeping.  They  all  know 
Mr.  Horsley,  and  he  has  the  good  will  of  all  the 

«<  i  >> 

bos. 

Horsley  has  been  somewhat  of  a  hobo  himself,  as 
the  following  excerpt  will  show: 

My  occupation  during  the  past  14  years  has  carried  me 
through  many  grades  of  labor.  First,  the  coal  mining  industry 
was  for  many  years  my  sole  occupation.  The  miner,  having  more 
dangers  to  confront  than  most  workers,  does  not  last  long.  The 
industry  claimed  two  of  my  brothers.  After  having  received 
a  dose  of  black  damps  (foul  air),  my  health  was  not  of  the  best  so 
I  decided  the  open  air  would  be  the  most  beneficial. 

I  started  with  a  picture  machine  to  earn  my  living  as  I 
recuperated.  I  traveled  through  Nebraska,  Dakota,  Wyoming, 
Montana,  and  Alberta,  Canada.  In  every  small  town  we  would 
generally  come  across  some  of  the  boys  (hobos).  Returning  from 
the  Northwest  I  came  back  East  without  the  machine.  I 
stayed  a  while  in  Iowa  and  then  went  back  to  the  West.  Pre¬ 
vious  to  and  during  the  war  I  was  in  the  shipbuilding  industry. 
Leaving  there  I  worked  for  a  short  while  in  the  woods  but  decided 
to  come  East  again.  Visiting  the  eastern  seaboard  I  saw  great 
industries  closing  down  so  I  finally  landed  in  Chicago. 

Dan's  work  is  selling  books  and  periodicals  but 
he  gets  his  recreation  by  mounting  the  soap  box 
occasionally.  He  is  a  devout  student  of  Marxian 
economics,  and  he  likes  nothing  better  than  to  talk 
economics  to  an  audience  of  workers.  At  the  “Hobo 
College”  he  is  known  as  “professor,”  and  he  gives 
lectures  there  now  and  then  on  economics,  or  his 
other  favorite  topic,  current  history. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


177 


The  Hobo  News  has  printed  a  number  of  his 
articles  on  economic  subjects.  His  writing,  like  his 
teaching  and  soap-boxing,  is  along  Marxian  lines. 
He  has  little  patience  for  anyone  who  sees  things 
differently.  His  hobby  is  education,  and  the  book 
business  gives  him  a  chance  to  get  to  the  homeless 
man  and  all  other  workers  the  kind  of  literature  that 
he  thinks  will  start  them  thinking. 

A.  W.  DRAGSTEDT,  “THE  HOBO  INTELLECTUAL  ” 

Mr.  Dragstedt  is  one  of  the  numerous  ex¬ 
secretaries  of  the  “Hobo  College”  for  the  year  1922- 
23.  As  secretary  of  the  “college,”  it  was  his  business 
to  attend  to  the  finances  of  the  institution  and  to 
manage  the  programs.  It  is  the  secretary’s  job  to 
find  speakers  for  various  occasions,  and  to  advertise 
the  meetings.  In  short,  the  secretary  must  be  a 
diplomat  and  an  executive.  Dragstedt  has  all  the 
earmarks  of  a  good  hobo  secretary. 

Born  in  Sweden  some  forty  years  ago,  he  emi¬ 
grated  to  this  country  and  settled  in  Montana  before 
he  was  out  of  his  teens.  He  did  not  remain  settled 
long,  but  went  here  and  there  in  search  of  work  until 
he  developed  into  a  regular  hobo.  He  has  worked  at 
nearly  all  the  migratory  occupations  and  has  seen 
nearly  all  the  states  of  the  Union.  He  is  now  one  of 
the  seasoned  veterans  of  the  floating  fraternity.  He 
is  getting  over  his  passion  for  travel,  but  he  has  not 
yet  learned  to  settle  down.  He  still  likes  to  feel  that 
he  is  free  to  go  whenever  the  notion  strikes  him, 
although  for  a  year  or  so  he  has  not  gone  very  far 
from  the  city. 

Dragstedt  is  a  man  of  wide  and  varied  experience, 
but  he  seldom  can  be  persuaded  to  talk  about  him- 


178 


THE  HOBO 


self.  He  did  his  bit  in  the  late  war  and  went  as  far 
as  France.  Most  hobos  who  have  been  across  like 
to  tell  about  it,  but  not  he.  But  Dragstedt  talks. 
He  has  ideas  and  he  talks  about  them.  He  has  a 
great  many  ideas,  some  of  them  consistent  and 
others  not,  but  they  keep  him  occupied  and  he  is 
generally  keeping  someone  else  interested.  He  is  a 
type  of  the  hobo  intellectual. 

As  a  high  brow,  Dragstedt  is  a  poet  of  no  mean 
ability.  His  poems  either  protest  against  the  “sys¬ 
tem”  or  idealize  tramp  life.  He  is  also  an  artist. 
The  walls  of  the  “Hobo  College”  are  adorned  with 
samples  of  his  workmanship  such  as  cartoons  and 
decorated  placards.  He  has  an  ambition  to  become 
a  cartoonist,  but  he  is  a  hobo,  and  hobos  are  men  who 
will  not  apply  themselves.  He  has  two  or  three 
scenarios  that  might  be  developed  into  fair  picture 
plays,  but  he  will  not  go  back  to  them  to  polish 
them  up.  This  calls  for  more  application  than  he 
cares  to  give.  In  this,  again,  he  is  a  hobo,  but  he 
does  not  grieve  about  that. 

CHARLES  W.  LANGSMAN,  EXPONENT  OF  LOVE 

Recently,  Superintendent  Langsman  celebrated 
his  twentieth  spiritual  birthday.  For  twenty  years 
he  has  been  connected  with  the  Bible  Rescue  Mission. 
Before  he  became  converted,  to  use  his  words,  he  was 
an  “ordinary  bad  man  of  the  street.”  He  has  lived 
the  life  of  the  tramp.  He  knows  hobos  from  the 
human  side.  He  knows  their  weaknesses,  their 
temptations,  and  their  trials.  For  twenty  years  he 
has  worked  with  them  to  aid  them.  Hundreds  of 
men  have  been  lifted  out  of  the  quicksands  of  a 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


179 


transient  and  aimless  life  by  him,  while  he  has 
inspired  thousands  to  make  an  effort. 

In  his  official  capacity  he  is  the  superintendent  of 
the  Bible  Rescue  Mission.  He  is  also  vice-president 
of  the  midwest  district  of  the  International  Mission 
Union.  To  the  men  on  the  street  he  is  known  as 
“Charley.”  No  mission  man  in  Chicago  is  better 
known. 

The  Bible  Rescue  Mission  is  the  only  one  that 
feeds  men  the  year  around.  Mr.  Langsman  feels 
that  hungry  men  need  food  just  as  much  in  summer 
as  in  winter.  To  him  feeding  is  an  evidence  of  the 
spirit  of  Christianity.  Because  of  this  policy  of  feed¬ 
ing,  he  has  been  severely  criticized  by  the  homeless 
men  themselves  and  by  missions.  Many  of  the  “bos” 
say  that  “Charley”  has  a  “doughnut  philosophy.” 
They  maintain  that  religion  is  not  worth  much  if  it 
can  only  get  into  a  man’s  heart  through  his  stomach. 
These  criticisms  come  back  to  Superintendent  Langs¬ 
man,  but  they  have  not  changed  his  policy. 

One  of  Langsman’s  hobbies  is  a  homeless  man’s 
picnic  each  year.  When  “Charley”  stages  a  picnic 
it  is  a  gala  day  for  West  Madison  Street.  All  the 
“boys”  come  out  for  a  ride  to  the  country  in  trucks 
furnished  by  various  firms  and  to  eat  sandwiches 
provided  by  the  churches. 

JOHN  VAN  DE  WATER,  THE  FRIEND  OF 
THE  DESERVING 

The  Helping  Hand  Mission  at  850  West  Madison 
Street  is  essentially  a  family  mission  with  Sunday- 
school,  parents’  classes,  and  other  auxiliary  activities. 
It  does  not,  however,  neglect  the  homeless  man. 
Superintendent  John  Van  de  Water,  for  the  last  eight 


180 


THE  HOBO 


years  superintendent  of  the  Helping  Hand  Mission,  is 
one  of  the  few  practical  men  in  the  mission  work. 
Throughout  the  winter  his  organization  feeds,  upon 
an  average,  ioo  men  a  day.  However,  no  one  is  fed 
who  will  not  work.  He  operates  a  wood  yard  and  any 
able-bodied  man  who  asks  for  aid  is  given  a  chance  to 
work.  His  is  the  only  mission  that  has  such  a  test. 

Mr.  Van  de  Water  does  not  care  for  converts 
that  must  be  “bought”  with  doughnuts  and  coffee, 
arid  he  has  little  patience  with  the  missions  imposed 
upon  by  men  who  become  converted  only  for  a 
place  to  sleep  or  something  to  eat.  He  is  in  favor 
of  concerted  action  among  missions,  because  where 
they  work  separately  they  lay  themselves  open  to 
exploitation. 

The  homeless  man  is  often  an  ungrateful  indi¬ 
vidual,  but  Mr.  Van  de  Water  feels  that  more  than  a 
fourth  of  the  men  aided  really  appreciate  the  help 
they  get.  Many  men  prefer  the  mission  floor  in 
cold  weather  to  the  floor  in  the  “flophouse,”  which  is 
seldom  scrubbed. 

BRIGADIER  J.  E.  ATKINS  AND  THE  SALVATION 

ARMY  HOTELS 

Most  exploited  and  least  loved  by  the  hobos  is  the 
Salvation  Army.  But  the  Salvation  Army  does  more 
for  the  hobo  than  any  other  agency.  In  every  city  of 
the  country  it  is  the  “good  Samaritan”  to  the  down- 
and-outs.  Not  only  is  it  interested  in  working  upon 
the  hearts  of  men,  but  it  seeks  to  help  people  to  walk 
alone.  One  of  the  pioneers  in  this  program  of 
practical  salvation  is  Brigadier  J.  E.  Atkins. 

Brigadier  Atkins,  a  native  of  Wales,  enlisted  with 
the  Salvation  Army  forty-three  years  ago.  He  was 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


181 


sent  to  this  country  in  1886  as  a  worker  at  the  time 
when  the  first  split  occurred  in  the  ranks.  At  that 
time  he  was  a  regular  officer  in  the  ranks,  and  later 
became  a  division  officer.  Before  the  war  he  was 
placed  in  charge  of  the  Salvation  Army  industrial 
work  in  Denver,  Kansas  City,  and  Des  Moines. 

He  entered  the  army  as  a  chaplain,  and  was 
assigned  to  the  first  division.  He  was  attached  to 
“Young  Teddy”  Roosevelt’s  organization,  and  as  a 
consequence  saw  considerable  action.  In  this  capa¬ 
city  he  spent  twenty-one  months  overseas,  serving 
with  his  organization  in  all  its  major  offensives. 
Twice  he  was  gassed,  and,  as  a  result,  his  voice  has 
been  permanently  impaired. 

Since  his  discharge  from  the  army,  Brigadier 
Atkins  has  been  in  charge  of  the  four  Salvation  Army 
hotels  for  men  in  Chicago  which  cater  to  the  superior 
class  of  homeless  men.  These  hotels  are  operated 
on  the  usual  Salvation  Army  business-like  basis. 
The  policy  is  to  make  them  pay  their  way,  if  possible, 
but  not  to  charge  prices  greater  than  the  commercial 
hotels.  It  is  the  Atkins  aim  to  give  all  the  service 
that  is  consistent  with  the  price:  to  keep  the  price 
as  low  as  possible,  and  to  keep  the  places  clean  and 
orderly.  He  is  insistent  on  getting  clean,  sober 
guests  in  the  Army  hotels,  and  no  apparently  clean, 
sober  man  without  funds  need  go  away.  The  con¬ 
trary  is  said  to  be  true  by  many  “bos,”  but  they  are 
generally  men  who  have  been  “found  out.” 

DR.  JOHNSTON  MYERS  AND  THE  IMMANUEL  PLAN 

We  have  knocked  out  the  heavy  stone  barrier  which  stood 
between  us  and  the  people  and  placed  in  its  stead  a  glass,  busi¬ 
ness,  inviting  front,  bearing  such  announcements  as,  “We  wor¬ 
ship,  we  heal,  we  clothe,  we  feed,  we  find  employment  for  those 


182 


THE  HOBO 


in  need”;  “Your  friends  are  inside,  come  in.”  Between  five 
hundred  and  one  thousand  people  accept  this  invitation  daily. 
We  are  prepared  to  meet  and  help  them. 

This  is  what  Dr.  Myers  has  done  with  a  typical, 
forbidding,  gray-stone  church,  the  Immanuel  Baptist 
Church,  at  2320  Michigan  Avenue.  For  twenty- 
seven  years  he  has  been  pastor  of  this  church,  and 
all  that  time  he  has  been  adhering  to  the  Immanuel 
plan  outlined  above.  For  ten  years  previous  to  his 
coming  to  the  Immanuel  Church,  he  was  pastor  of 
the  Ninth  Street  Baptist  Church  of  Cincinnati,  where 
he  followed  this  scheme  of  serving  humanity  as  well 
as  God. 

Dr.  Myers  is  a  practical  religionist.  He  is  bring¬ 
ing  religion  out  of  the  clouds,  and  has  made  it  an 
everyday,  functioning  affair.  In  his  mind  it  does  not 
hurt  a  church  to  have  a  kitchen  in  the  basement  nor 
to  operate  a  restaurant  in  the  building.  His  church 
serves  an  excellent  meal  for  thirty  cents.  Many  of 
the  workers  in  the  automobile  salesrooms  and  the 
students  from  the  medical  college  near  by  are  in  the 
habit  of  taking  lunch  at  the  church. 

Most  of  the  churches  in  the  business  area  have 
closed  their  doors,  but  the  Immanuel  Baptist  is  more 
conspicuous  today  than  ever  before.  The  business 
men  on  the  street  are  proud  of  it.  They  contributed 
recently  to  help  rebuild  it  after  the  steeple  had  been 
blown  down  by  a  gale.  The  church  does  not  serve 
its  members  as  it  used  to,  because  most  of  the  fami¬ 
lies  have  moved  away  and  now  most  of  its  congrega¬ 
tion  is  composed  of  homeless  men. 

Dr.  Myers  does  not  try  to  preach  to  the  men,  nor 
does  he  try  to  use  the  material  aid  he  gives  as  a 
means  of  coaxing  men  to  become  converted.  He 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


183 


does  not  believe  in  such  conversions.  He  and  his 
staff  have  learned  that  the  average  homeless  man  can¬ 
not  hold  money.  The  men  who  apply  know  this 
too.  “Johnston  Myers  will  feed  anyone  but  it  is 
pretty  hard  to  get  any  ‘jack’  from  him.” 

THE  GREEN  STEINS  AND  “MOTHER’S 

restaurant” 

Few  hobos  enter  Chicago  who  have  not  heard  of 
“Mother”  Greenstein.  For  years  Mother  and 
Father  Greenstein  ran  a  saloon  on  South  State 
Street.  It  was  a  barrel-house  and  the  “bos” 
flocked  to  it  when  they  had  money.  It  was  one  of 
the  few  saloons  in  that  area  that  was  on  “  the  square.” 
Among  the  hobos  it  is  asserted  that  “Mother”  is  the 
richest  woman  in  Chicago.  But  her  wealth  has  not 
changed  her  habits.  She  reared  a  family  of  seven 
children,  and  most  of  them  have  gone  through  college 
and  into  business  for  themselves.  The  Greensteins 
are  proud  of  their  family,  but  no  less  proud  of  their 
work.  With  the  coming  of  prohibition,  they  closed 
the  saloon  and  opened  a  restaurant  on  the  corner  of 
Ninth  and  State  streets. 

The  place  is  known  as  “Mother’s  Restaurant,” 
and  it  is  one  of  the  few  places  in  Hobohemia  that  has 
the  right  to  write  “Home  Cooking”  on  the  window. 
Day  after  day  “Mother”  is  on  the  job,  cooking 
steaks  and  chops  and  French-fried  potatoes,  while 
“Father”  waits  table  and  serves  at  the  bar.  Mother 
lives  in  her  work.  She  is  proud  of  her  kitchen,  and 
she  likes  to  serve  hungry  men.  The  hobos  say  no 
chef  in  the  Blackstone  or  Drake  can  prepare  more 
savory  dishes.  The  Greensteins  did  not  earn  their 
reputation  by  serving  hungry  men  who  could  pay 


184 


THE  HOBO 


their  way,  but  by  serving  the  penniless  and  hungry 
at  times  when  it  is  hard  for  hungry  men  to  get  food. 

A  sign  is  painted  on  the  wall  outside  the  restau¬ 
rant:  “Mother’s  Restaurant.  Don’t  Go  Hungry. 
See  Mother.”  Last  winter  another  sign  placed  in 
the  window  read:  “Attention!  Starting  Monday, 
Dec.  20  [1921],  ‘Mother’  Will  Serve  Hot  Coffee  and 
Rolls  Free  ....  from  5  a.m.  to  7  a.m.”  Some 
mornings  the  bread  line  at  901  South  State  Street 
contained  as  many  as  500  men  who  were  out  to  get 
a  bowl  of  coffee  and  something  to  eat,  but  none  were 
ever  turned  away.  There  is  always  plenty  of  bread 
and  plenty  of  coffee,  and  good  coffee,  too. 

The  hobos  do  appreciate  “Mother.”  The  old- 
timers  of  South  State  Street  swear  by  her. 

HOBO  LEADERSHIP 

This  rapid  sketch  of  a  few  persons  in  the  Who's 
Who  of  Hobohemia  gives  a  picture  of  the  local  leader¬ 
ship  among  the  homeless  men.  All  these  persons, 
and  many  others  who  embody  either  the  aspirations 
of  the  hobos  or  the  organized  religious  and  philan¬ 
thropic  impulses  of  the  larger  community  toward 
the  migrant,  must  be  taken  into  account  in  any 
fundamental  policy  and  program  for  his  welfare. 
All  these  leaders  are  dealing  with  the  homeless  man 
as  a  human  being,  that  is,  with  his  personal  needs,  his 
memories,  and  his  hopes.  Working  with  these 
leaders,  the  social  agencies  may  secure  both  insight 
into  his  attitudes  and  wishes  and  his  co-operation  for 
his  own  well-being. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  THE  HOBO 


THE  homeless  man  is  an  extensive  reader.  This 
is  especially  true  of  the  transients,  the  tramp, 
and  the  hobo.  The  tramp  employs  his  leisure  to  read 
everything  that  comes  his  way.  If  he  is  walking 
along  the  railroad  track,  he  picks  up  the  papers  that 
are  thrown  from  the  trains;  he  reads  the  cast-off 
magazines.  If  he  is  in  the  city,  he  hunts  out  some 
quiet  corner  where  he  may  read.  The  tramp  is  a 
man  with  considerable  leisure,  but  few  books. 

The  libraries  are  open  to  them,  but  comparatively 
few  use  them.  Public  libraries  are  generally  impos¬ 
ing  structures  and,  dressed  as  he  usually  is,  the  tramp 
hesitates  to  enter  them.  Dan  Horsley,  who  is  a 
newsdealer  and  runs  a  bookstore  on  West  Madison,  in 
an  article  in  the  Hobo  News  for  October,  1922,  writes: 

Just  as  a  hobo  would  feel  out  of  place  in  a  Fifth  Avenue 
church,  so  he  would  feel  in  the  average  library.  He  does  not 
make  general  use  of  the  libraries  because  of  the  menacing  fear 
of  the  law.  He  is  always  watching  lest  he  be  caught  as  a  vagrant, 
and  this  prevents  him  seeking  recreative  study;  so  he  gets  his 
own  literature  to  read  and  seeks  some  quiet  place. 

There  are  men  in  the  hobo  class  who  are  not 
deterred  by  these  scruples.  Some  of  the  most 
persistent  users  of  the  library  have  been  initiated 
during  the  winter  time  when  they  were  forced  inside 
for  shelter.  The  newspaper  reading-room  of  the 
Chicago  Public  Library  has  become  for  them  a 
favorite  retreat  during  the  cold  winter  days.  It  is 
also  a  good  resting-place  in  the  hot  summer  months. 

Lodging-houses  sometimes  have  reading-rooms 
in  which  guests  may  find  the  local  newspapers  and 

[185 


186 


THE  HOBO 


current  periodicals.  Such  reading  material  is  usu¬ 
ally  extensively  read  and  much  thumb-marked. 
Most  lodging-houses  and  rooming-houses  do  not 
provide  reading  matter  for  their  guests.  Seldom 
does  a  tramp  throw  away  a  paper.  He  passes  it  on 
to  someone  else,  and  after  it  has  served  its  usefulness 
as  reading  matter,  he  may  use  it  at  night  for  a  bed 
either  in  a  “flophouse”  or  a  park,  along  the  docks, 
or  in  box  cars. 

The  hobo  reads  the  daily  papers  but  does  not 
indorse  them.  He  looks  with  disapproval  upon  the 
so-called  “capitalist”  press.  If  he  belongs  to  the 
radicals  he  is  sure  that  the  press  is  against  him.  But 
in  spite  of  this  he  reads  it.  He  reads  it  for  the 
news. 

Radical  papers,  to  be  sure,  are  steadfast  in  their 
efforts  to  promote  his  interests  and  champion  his 
cause,  but  it  is  a  cause  that  is  so  well  known  to  the 
homeless  man  that  it  has  lost  its  novelty.  There  are 
many  radical  papers.  Among  them  are  the  Weekly 
People ,  the  Truth ,  the  Industrial  Solidarity ,  the 
Worker ,  the  Hobo  News ,  the  Liberator ,  the  Voice  of 
Labor.  These  are  not  printed  primarily  for  the 
homeless  man,  but  have  a  wide  circulation  among 
the  so-called  “slum  proletariat.” 

The  homeless  man  reads  a  certain  amount  of 
religious  literature,  but  little  of  it  is  perused  in  the 
spirit  hoped  for  by  the  mission  worker  or  street 
evangelist.  He  reads  it  because  it  is  handed  to  him 
and  it  kills  time. 

Short-story  magazines  are  popular.  Next  to 
short-story  magazines  would  come  railroad  or  engi¬ 
neering  journals  and  other  magazines  dealing  with 
popular  mechanics. 


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THE  HOBO  READS  PROGRESSIVE  LITERATURE 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


187 


Sex  stories  are,  of  course,  popular.  The  tramp 
has  a  preference  for  books  of  adventure  and  action. 
Jack  London  is  the  most  widely  read  of  novelists 
among  the  “bos.”  Books  on  mechanics,  How  to 
Run  an  Automobile ,  Uses  of  the  Steel  Square ,  Block 
Signal  Systems ,  Gas  Engines ,  have  a  wide  sale. 

Works  on  phrenology,  palmistry,  Christian  Science, 
hypnotism,  and  the  secrets  of  the  stars,  etc.,  are  of 
perennial  interest.  Joke  books  and  books  explaining 
tricks  with  cards  or  riddles,  detective  stories,  and 
books  in  the  field  of  the  social  sciences  are  surprisingly 
popular.  Bookstores  patronized  by  tramps  keep  in 
stock  special  pocket-size  editions  of  works  on  soci¬ 
ology,  economics,  politics,  and  history.  The  radical 
periodicals  recommend  books  to  the  serious-minded 
hobo  reader.  Following  is  a  list  from  the  Hobo  News: 

Easy  Outlines  on  Economics ,  by  Noah  Ablett 
A  Worker  Looks  at  History ,  by  Mark  Starr 
Philosophical  Essays;  Positive  Outlines  of  Philosophy ,  by 
J.  Dietzgen 

Among  the  books  recommended  for  the  proletariat 
in  the  I.W.W.  literature  list  for  April,  1922,  are  the 
following : 

The  Ancient  Lowly ,  C.  Osborne  Ward 
Ancient  Society ,  Lewis  H.  Morgan 
Capital ,  Karl  Marx 
Capital  Today ,  Herman  Cahn 
The  Economic  Causes  of  War ,  Achille  Loria 
Essays  on  the  Materialistic  Conception  of  History ,  Antonio 
Labriola 

Evolution  of  Man ,  Wilhelm  Boelache 

Evolution  of  Property ,  Paul  Lafargue 

Social  and  Philosophical  Studies ,  Paul  Lafargue 

Stories  of  the  Great  Railroads ,  Charles  Edward  Russell 

The  Universal  Kinship ,  J.  Howard  Moore 


188 


THE  HOBO 


History  of  Great  American  Fortunes ,  Gustavus  Myers 

History  of  the  Supreme  Courts  Gustavus  Myers 

Origin  of  the  Family ;  Private  Property  and  the  State ,  Frederick 
Engels 

The  History  of  the  I.W.W.y  Frederic  Brissenden 

These  books  are  kept  in  stock  at  the  I.W.W. 
headquarters  and  extensively  sold  and  read  by  the 
intellectuals.  Soap-box  orators  get  fuel  for  the  fires 
they  seek  to  kindle  from  books  of  this  sort.  It  is 
common  knowledge  on  the  “stem”  that  one  can  tell 
the  books  a  speaker  reads  by  the  opinions  he 
expresses  and  the  programs  he  favors. 

THE  HOBO  WRITER 

The  hobo  who  reads  sooner  or  later  tries  his  hand 
at  writing.  A  surprisingly  large  number  of  them 
eventually  realize  their  ambition  to  get  into  print. 
It  is  not  unusual  to  meet  a  man  of  the  road  with  a 
number  of  clippings  in  his  pocket  of  articles  he  has 
contributed  to  the  daily  press.  Most  of  the  great 
dailies  have  columns  that  are  accessible  to  the  free¬ 
lance  writer,  and  the  pages  of  the  radical  press  are 
always  open  to  productions  of  the  hobo  pen.  Most 
of  these  contributions  are  in  the  form  of  letters  to 
editors.  One  man  who  writes  many  such  letters 
proudly  exhibited  an  article  recently  published  in 
the  Chicago  Daily  Tribune .  It  was  signed  “F.  W.  B.” 
He  explained  that  these  letters  stood  for  “Fellow 
Worker  Block.”  That  was  his  nom  de  plume. 

The  hobo  writer  does  not  concern  himself  with 
letters  alone.  A  number  of  them  are  ambitious  to 
become  novelists,  essayists,  and  even  dramatists. 
Some  of  these  men  have  manuscripts  that  they  have 
carried  about  with  them  for  years  in  search  of  a 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


189 


publisher.  One  such  author,  an  old  man,  said:  “I 
have  material  enough  together  to  write  a  book.  All 
I  want  is  to  get  someone  to  help  me  organize  it.  I 
want  someone  to  go  over  it  with  me.  You  see, 
I  never  had  much  schooling  and  my  grammar  is  not 
very  good.”  Another  man  carried  about  a  great  roll 
of  manuscript  which  purported  to  be  a  “society 
novel.”  It  was  entitled  The  Literary  in  Literature. 
It  was  written  in  lead  pencil  and  represented  the 
accumulated  effort  of  several  years.  When  the  mood 
struck  him,  he  added  a  chapter  or  a  paragraph. 
Before  the  last  page  had  been  written,  however,  the 
first  was  so  badly  dimmed  from  being  carried  around 
that  it  could  not  be  deciphered. 

Some  hobo  writers  have  visions  of  a  financial 
success  that  will  put  them  on  “easy  street.”  One 
man  offered  to  share  the  proceeds  from  the  publica¬ 
tions  of  a  series  of  essays  on  economics  if  the  investi¬ 
gator  would  typewrite  it.  “Why,  this  will  bring 
thousands  of  dollars,”  he  said.  “If  I  can  only  get  a 
publisher  interested,  but,”  he  added,  “they  don’t 
seem  to  care  for  live  subjects.” 

Another  hobo  writes  songs  and  has  the  same  diffi¬ 
culty  with  publishers.  He  still  feels,  after  hundreds 
of  failures,  that  he  will  eventually  get  into  the 
limelight. 

The  hobo  writer  who  plies  the  pen  for  the  love  of 
it  is  not  unusual.  One  man  has  been  working  on  a 
play  for  several  months.  He  cannot  get  anyone 
interested,  but  that  has  not  quenched  his  enthusiasm. 
Another  man  spends  most  of  his  leisure  on  the  north 
side  of  Hobohemia,  writing  fantastic  paragraphs. 
They  are  interesting  and  amusing.  He  does  not 
try  to  publish  them.  He  writes  them  because  he 


190 


THE  HOBO 


enjoys  it.  Most  numerous  of  the  hobo  writers  are 
the  propagandists  and  dreamers.  They  are  the 
chief  contributors  to  the  rebel  press.  Many  of  them 
care  to  be  identified  with  no  other.  They  are  not 
artists  nor  do  they  write  for  gain.  They  have  little 
patience  for  the  writer  who  lives  for  the  so-called 
“filthy  lucre. ” 

But  whatever  their  motive,  most  of  these  hobo 
writers,  for  the  want  of  a  better  medium,  become 
contributors  to  the  radical  press.  Without  them 
radical  sheets  like  the  I.W.W.  publications  and  the 
Hobo  News  would  not  appeal  to  the  homeless  man. 
The  radical  press  in  turn  serves  as  a  pattern  by 
which  hobo  writers  fashion  and  color  their  literary 
productions. 

THE  “INDUSTRIAL  SOLIDARITY” 

The  Industrial  Solidarity  is  a  typical  I.W.W. 
paper.  It  comes  nearer  than  any  other  I.W.W.  pa¬ 
per  to  reflecting  the  mind  and  the  spirit  of  the 
average  hobo.  It  is  a  six-  or  eight-page  weekly  and 
sells  for  five  cents.  It  is  published  in  Chicago  from 
where  it  is  distributed  to  individual  subscribers  or 
in  bundles  to  the  peddlers  or  newsdealers. 

The  issue  of  July  i,  1922,  contains  the  following 
articles: 

In  bold  headlines  across  the  front  page  under  the  caption, 
“Company  Brought  on  Herrin  Mine  War”  is  a  detailed  narrative 
of  the  whole  affair  written  by  George  Williams  who  is  supposed 
to  have  been  an  eye-witness.  This  article  contains  four  full 
columns,  two  of  them  on  the  front  page.  Another  front-page 
article  is  devoted  to  the  freeing  of  political  prisoners.  It  has 
special  reference  to  the  fifty-two  I.W.W.  in  Leavenworth  who 
refused  to  ask  the  President  for  pardon.  The  article  is  headed, 
“Hundreds  of  Cities  in  Million  Signature  Petition  Drive.” 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


191 


The  slogan  was  “Let  Them  Go  Free.”  Attorney-General 
Daugherty,  who  at  best  is  not  popular  with  the  floating  popu¬ 
lation,  is  shown  in  a  cartoon  on  the  front  page  marching  in  a 
parade  carrying  a  banner  on  which  is  inscribed,  “Please,  Let 
Morse  out  of  Prison.”  Over  the  cartoon  is  written  the  ironical 
legend,  which  harks  back  to  some  remark  that  had  been  used 
against  the  “Wobblies,”  “This  is  no  Children’s  Crusade.” 

Considerable  space  is  devoted  to  the  spring  drive  for  member¬ 
ship.  At  the  time  of  the  publication  of  this  number  the  drive 
was  on  in  full  blast  in  the  harvest  fields  where  the  so-called 
“slugging  committees”  were  out  enrolling  members.  One  long 
article  was  published  telling  of  “conditions”  in  Kansas  and 
Oklahoma  where  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  offering  active  opposi¬ 
tion  to  the  I.W.W.  The  articles  had  been  sent  in  by  some 
“bo”  who  told  in  detail  how  the  “Wobblies”  outwitted  the 
“town  clowns,”  or  local  police,  and  the  K.K.K. 

According  to  the  I.W.W.  literature  list  for  April, 
1922,  the  following  periodicals  are  issued  regularly: 


Name 

Issued 

Where 

Published 

No.  Each 
Issue 

Language 

Industrial  Solidarity .... 

Weekly 

Chicago 

1 2 , OOO 

English 

Industrial  Worker . 

Weekly 

Seattle 

10,000 

English 

Industrial  Unionist . 

Bi-weekly 

New  York 

(?) 

English 

Golos  Truzenika . 

Bi-weekly 

Chicago 

3,000 

Russian 

A  Felszabadulas . 

Weekly 

Chicago 

5,000 

Hungarian 

II  Proletario . 

Weekly 

Chicago 

6,000 

Italian 

Solidaridad . 

Weekly 

Chicago 

5,500 

Spanish 

Rahotnicheska  My  si .  .  .  . 

Weekly 

Chicago 

a,  800 

Bulgarian 

Muncitorul . 

Bi-weekly 

Chicago 

4,200 

Roumanian 

Jedna  Velka  Unie . 

Monthly 

Chicago 

2,700 

Czecho-Slovak 

Tie  Vapauteen . 

Monthly 

Chicago 

7,000 

Finnish 

Industrialisti . 

Daily 

Duluth 

1 6 , 000 

Finnish 

Snaga  Radnika . 

Bi-weekly 

Duluth 

3>5°° 

Croatian 

“Wobbly”  papers  are  extensively  used  as  lesson 
sheets.  Solidarity  has  one  long  article  of  this  char¬ 
acter  which  is  an  analysis  and  criticism  of  craft  union¬ 
ism.  Finally,  there  are  several  communications  from 


192 


THE  HOBO 


members  on  the  road  and  four  or  five  editorials  on 
questions  of  the  day. 

The  Solidarity  is  only  one  of  a  number  of  I.W.W. 
publications,  but  the  most  important  as  far  as  the 
hobos  are  concerned.  The  organization  maintains  a 
publishing  company  of  its  own,  the  Equity  Press, 
which  is  situated  at  the  I.W.W.  headquarters  in 
Chicago. 

THE  “HOBO  NEWS” 

The  Hobo  News ,  published  in  St.  Louis,  contains 
sixteen  pages  and  carries  no  advertising.  It  is  pub¬ 
lished  monthly  and  sells  for  ten  cents.  It  is  distrib¬ 
uted,  like  Solidarity ,  by  bundle  orders  or  subscription. 

The  July,  1922,  issue  of  the  Hobo  News  has  the 
following  contents: 

An  article  by  Laura  Irwin  entitled,  “Half  Dead  (Unnecessary 
Movement  a  Crime).”  It  laments  the  fact  that  more  care  is 
given  to  machines  and  animals  than  to  men  by  the  big  interests. 
Another  article  is  a  reprint  entitled,  “Hobos  in  Missouri.” 
It  is  a  description  of  life  on  the  road.  Daniel  Horsley,  a  Chi¬ 
cagoan,  has  an  article  on  “Hobo  Life  and  Death:  Something  to 
Think  About.”  It  is  a  discussion  of  the  struggle  for  existence. 
There  is  also  a  short  story  entitled  “Callahans’s  Castle”  depict¬ 
ing  jungle  pastimes. 

Under  the  heading  “Near  Poetry”  are  several  short  poems 
by  different  hobo  contributors.  Some  of  the  titles  are:  “His¬ 
tory,”  “Adrift,”  “To  a  Hobo,”  “Labor’s  March,”  “Our  Boss,” 
“The  Hobo:  of  Course,”  and  “The  Glory  of  Toil.”  Several 
letters  to  the  editor  deal  with  subjects  of  general  interest  to  the 
hobos.  The  editor  writes  on  the  prospects  for  work  the  coming 
winter.  There  are  two  cartoons.  One  shows  the  figure  of  a 
worker  hewn  out  of  stone  at  the  top  of  a  mountain.  He  is 
being  assailed  by  politicians  and  capitalists.  Over  the  cartoon 
is  this  legend,  “These  Shall  Not  Prevail  against  Him.”  Another 
cartoon  shows  a  tramp  waiting  at  the  water  tank.  A  train  is 
approaching  in  the  distance.  It  is  entitled,  “The  Regular  Stop.” 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


193 


No  class  of  men  are  in  a  better  position  to  know 
life  than  the  migratory  population.  These  men  have 
a  large  fund  of  experience,  but  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  developed  any  sense  of  the  relative  values. 
With  all  this  experience  and  with  all  these  contacts 
with  life,  they  are  not  able  to  interpret  it.  The  intel¬ 
lectuals  are  obsessed  by  the  class  struggle,  and  instead 
of  writing  literature,  they  prefer  to  repeat  the  formu¬ 
las  and  play  with  the  mental  toys  which  the  doctri¬ 
naire  reformers  and  revolutionists  have  fashioned  for 
them. 

We  cannot  say  therefore  that  the  radical  press  in 
monopolizing  the  hobo  pens  has  robbed  art.  Among 
all  these  contributors  to  the  radical  publications, 
there  are  few  who  might  produce  literature.  Many 
of  them  do  not  have  patience  to  write  literature  nor 
the  courage  to  formulate  a  new  idea.  They  prefer 
to  ride  a  hobby  and  repeat  familiar  formulas. 

Writers  who  do  find  themselves  do  not  remain  in 
the  hobo  class.  Others  have  the  ability  to  rise,  but 
because  of  drink  or  drugs  are  unable  to  do  so.  These 
men  may  find  a  place  on  the  staff  of  one  of  the  radi¬ 
cal  papers.  They  may  even  aspire  to  an  editorship. 
Such  a  goal  is  not  uncommon  among  the  intellectuals. 
The  Hobo  News  is  one  paper  that  the  hobo  writer  likes 
to  be  identified  with  because  it  is  more  than  a  doc¬ 
trinaire  propagandist  sheet.  It  maintains  some  liter¬ 
ary  features,  and  every  issue  has  one  or  more  articles 
or  poems  that  portray  hobo  life. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

HOBO  SONGS  AND  BALLADS 


MUCH  so-called  hobo  verse  which  has  found  its 
way  into  print  was  not  written  by  tramps, 
but  by  men  who  knew  enough  of  the  life  of  the  road 
to  enable  them  to  interpret  its  spirit.  The  best 
hobo  poems  have  been  written  behind  prison  bars. 
Many  of  the  songs  of  the  I.W.W.  have  been  written 
in  jail. 

The  poetry  most  popular  among  the  men  on  the 
road  are  ballads  describing  some  picturesque  and 
tragic  incident  of  the  hobo’s  adventurous  life.  The 
following  by  an  unknown  author  illustrates  the 
type.  Here  is  an  incident  told  in  the  language  of 
the  road  in  a  manner  that  every  “bo”  can  under¬ 
stand  and  appreciate. 

The  Gila  Monster  Route 

The  lingering  sunset  across  the  plain 
Kissed  the  rear  end  of  an  east-bound  train, 

And  shone  on  the  passing  track  close  by 
Where  a  dingbat  sat  on  a  rotten  tie. 

He  was  ditched  by  the  “shack/’  and  cruel  fate, 

The  “con”  highballed,  and  the  manifest  freight, 

Pulled  out  on  the  stem  behind  the  mail, 

And  beat  it  east  on  a  sanded  rail. 

As  she  pulled  away  in  the  fading  night 
He  could  see  the  gleam  of  her  red  tail  lights. 

Then  the  moon  arose,  and  the  stars  came  out; 

He  was  ditched  on  the  Gila  Monster  Route. 

There  was  nothing  in  sight  but  sand  and  space; 

No  chance  for  a  bo  to  feed  his  face; 

Not  even  a  shack  to  beg  for  a  lump. 

Nor  a  hen  house  there  to  frisk  for  a  gump. 

194] 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


195 


As  he  gazed  far  out  on  the  solitude 
He  dropped  his  head  and  began  to  brood. 

He  thought  of  the  time  he  lost  his  pal 
In  the  hostile  berg  of  Stockton,  Cal. 

They  had  mooched  the  stem  and  threw  their  feet, 
And  speared  four  bits  on  which  to  eat; 

But  deprived  themselves  of  their  daily  bread, 

And  sluffed  the  coin  for  dago-red. 

Then,  down  by  the  tracks,  in  the  jungle’s  glade, 

On  the  cool,  green  grass  in  the  tule’s  shade, 

They  shed  their  coats,  and  ditched  their  shoes, 

And  tanked  up  full  of  that  colored  booze. 

Then,  they  took  a  flop  with  their  hides  plumb  full, 
And  did  not  hear  the  harness  bull, 

Till  he  shook  them  out  of  their  boozy  nap, 

With  a  husky  voice  and  a  loaded  sap. 

They  were  charged  with  vag,  for  they  had  no  kale, 
And  the  judge  said  sixty  days  in  jail; 

But  the  john  had  a  bundle,  the  worker’s  plea, 

So  he  gave  him  a  floater  and  set  him  free. 

They  had  turned  him  out,  but  ditched  his  mate, 

So  he  grabbed  the  guts  of  an  east-bound  freight; 
He  had  held  his  form  to  the  rusty  rods 
Till  the  brakeman  hollered,  “Hit  the  sod.” 

So  the  bo  rolled  off  and  in  the  ditch, 

With  two  switch  lights  and  a  rusty  switch, 

A  poor,  old,  seedy,  half-starved  bo 
On  a  hostile  pike  without  a  show. 

Then  all  at  once  from  out  of  the  dark 

Came  the  short,  sharp  notes  of  a  coyote’s  bark; 

The  bo  looked  up  and  quickly  rose, 

And  shook  the  dust  from  his  threadbare  clothes. 

Far  off  in  the  west  through  the  moonlight  night 
He  saw  the  gleam  of  a  big  head  light; 

An  east-bound  stock  run  hummed  the  rail, 

It  was  due  at  the  switch  to  clear  the  mail. 


196 


THE  HOBO 


As  she  pulled  up  close  the  head-end  “shack” 

Threw  the  switch  to  the  passing  track, 

The  stock  rolled  in  and  off  the  main, 

The  line  was  clear  for  the  west-bound  train. 

As  she  hove  in  sight  far  up  the  track, 

She  was  working  steam  with  the  brake  shoes  slack; 
Whistling  once  at  the  whistling  post, 

She  flittered  by  like  a  frightened  ghost. 

You  could  hear  the  roar  of  the  big  six  wheel, 

As  the  drivers  pounded  the  polished  steel, 

And  the  screech  of  the  flanges  on  the  rail, 

As  she  beat  it  west  o’er  the  desert  trail. 

The  john  got  busy  and  took  a  risk, 

He  climbed  aboard  and  began  to  frisk, 

He  reached  up  high  and  began  to  feel 
For  an  end-door  pin,  then  he  cracked  a  seal. 

’Twas  a  double-deck  stock  loaded  with  sheep; 

The  john  got  in  and  went  to  sleep; 

The  “con”  highballed,  and  she  whistled  out, 

They  were  off — down  the  Gila  Monster  Route. 

The  following  ballad  by  Harry  Kemp,  the  “tramp 
poet,”  describes  a  situation  that  is  familiar  to  those 
who  know  Hobohemia.  Many  men  in  the  tramp 
class,  to  escape  cold  and  hunger,  have  yielded  to  a 
similar  temptation. 

The  Tramp  Confession 

We  huddled  in  the  mission 
Fer  it  was  cold  outside 
And  listened  to  the  preacher 
Tell  of  the  Crucified; 

Without  a  sleety  drizzle 
Cut  deep  each  ragged  form, 

An’  so  we  stood  the  talkin’ 

Fer  shelter  from  the  storm. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


197 


They  sang  of  Gods  and  Angels 
An’  Heaven’s  eternal  joy 

An’  things  I  stopped  believin’ 

When  I  was  still  a  boy; 

They  spoke  of  good  an’  evil 
An’  offered  savin’  grace 

An’  some  showed  love  for  mankind 
Ashinin’  in  their  face. 

An’  some  their  graft  was  workin’ 

The  same  as  me  and  you; 

But  some  was  urgin’  on  us 
What  they  believed  was  true. 

We  sang  an’  dozed  an’  listened, 

But  only  feared,  us  men 

The  time  when,  service  over, 

We’d  have  to  mooch  again. 

An’  walk  the  icy  pavements, 

An’  breast  the  snow  storm  gray, 

Till  the  saloons  was  opened, 

An’  there  was  hints  of  day. 

So,  when  they  called  out,  “Sinners, 
Won’t  you  come  ?”  I  came  .  .  .  . 

But  in  my  face  was  pallor 

An’  in  my  heart  was  shame  .... 

An’  so  fergive  me,  Jesus, 

Fer  mockin’  of  thy  name. 

Fer  I  was  cold  an’  hungry; 

They  gave  me  food  and  bed 

After  I  kneeled  there  with  them, 

An’  many  prayers  was  said. 

An’  so  fergive  me,  Jesus, 

I  didn’t  mean  no  harm  .... 

Fer  outside  it  was  zero 
An’  inside  it  was  warm. 


198 


THE  HOBO 


Yes,  I  was  cold  an’  hungry 
An’  Oh,  Thou  Crucified, 

Thou  Friend  of  all  the  Lowly, 

Fergive  the  lie  I  lied.1 

WANDERLUST 

Many  men  have  seen  charms  in  the  life  on  the 
road;  Walt  Whitman  and  Vachel  Lindsay  are  or  were 
tramp  poets.  For  men  who  cannot  endure  the 
security  and  the  tyranny  of  convention,  this  care¬ 
free  existence  has  an  irresistible  appeal.  The  follow¬ 
ing  swinging  poem  by  H.  H.  Knibbs  vibrates  with 
the  call  of  the  road. 

Nothing  to  Do  but  Go 

I’m  the  wandering  son  with  the  nervous  feet, 

That  never  were  meant  for  a  steady  beat; 

I’ve  had  many  a  job  for  a  little  while, 

I’ve  been  on  the  bum  and  I’ve  lived  in  style; 

And  there  was  the  road,  stretchin’  mile  after  mile, 

And  nothing  to  do  but  go„ 

So,  beat  it,  Bo,  while  your  feet  are  mates; 

Take  a  look  at  the  whole  United  States; 

There’s  the  little  fire  and  the  pipe  at  night; 

And  up  again  when  the  morning’s  bright; 

With  nothin’  but  road  and  sky  in  sight, 

And  nothin’  to  do  but  go. 

V 

So,  beat  it,  Bo,  while  the  goin’s  good, 

While  the  birds  in  the  trees  are  sawin’  wood; 

If  today  ain’t  the  finest  for  you  and  me, 

Then  there’s  tomorrow  that’s  going  to  be, 

And  the  day  after  that,  that’s  cornin’,  see, 

And  nothin’  to  do  but  go. 

1  H.  Kemp,  The  Cry  of  Youth ,  p.  60.  By  special  permission  of  the  pub¬ 
lisher,  Mitchell  Kennerley. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


199 


Then  beat  it,  Bo,  while  you’re  young  and  strong; 

See  all  you  can,  for  it  won’t  last  long; 

You  can  tarry  for  only  a  little  spell, 

On  the  long,  gray  road  to  Fare-Ye-Well, 

That  leads  to  Heaven  or  maybe  Hell, 

And  nothin’  to  do  but  god 

“Away  from  Town,”  by  Harry  Kemp,  is  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  springtime  yearning  that  the  hobo 
feels  to  be  off  to  the  country  after  spending  the 
winter  in  the  city’s  slums.  Not  all  tramps  who 
feel,  with  the  passing  of  winter,  the  urge  to  move,  are 
enticed  from  the  “gaunt,  gray  city”  in  search  of 
“country  cheer,”  but  a  goodly  number  love  the 
grass  and  shade  and  a  season  in  the  “jungles.”  It  is 
the  same  call  that  makes  truants  of  school  boys  and 
fishermen  of  staid  business  men. 

High  perched  upon  a  box-car,  I  speed,  I  speed  today; 

I  leave  the  gaunt,  gray  city  some  good,  green  miles  away, 

A  terrible  dream  in  granite,  a  riot  of  streets  and  brick 
A  frantic  nightmare  of  people  until  the  soul  turns  sick — 

Such  is  the  high,  gray  city  with  the  live  green  waters  ’round 
Oozing  up  from  the  Ocean,  slipping  in  from  the  Sound. 

I’d  put  up  in  the  Bowery  for  nights  in  a  ten-cent  bed 
Where  the  dinky  “L”  trains  thunder  and  rattle  overhead; 

I’d  traipsed  the  barren  pavements  with  pain  of  frost  in  my 
feet; 

I’d  sidled  to  hotel  kitchens  and  asked  for  something  to  eat. 

But  when  the  snow  went  dripping,  and  the  young  spring  came 
as  one 

Who  weeps  because  of  the  winter,  laughs  because  of  the  sun 
I  thought  of  a  limpid  brooklet  that  bickers  through  weeds  all 
day, 

And  I  made  a  streak  for  the  ferry,  and  rode  across  in  a  dray, 

1 H.  H.  Knibbs,  Songs  of  the  Outlands ,  p.  50.  By  permission,  and  special 
arrangement  with,  Houghton,  Mifflin  Company,  the  authorized  publishers. 


200 


THE  HOBO 


And  dodged  into  the  Erie  where  they  bunt  the  box-cars  round. 
I  peeled  my  eye  for  detectives,  and  boarded  an  outward  bound. 
For  you  know  when  a  man’s  been  cabined  in  walls  for  part  of 
a  year, 

He  longs  for  a  place  to  stretch  in,  he  hankers  for  country  cheer.1 

POEMS  OF  PROTEST 

In  spite  of  its  transient  charms,  the  life  of  the 
tramp  is  a  hard  one.  It  is  fine  to  be  free,  but  it  is 
good  to  have  a  home.  The  hobo  likes  freedom,  but 
is  not  satisfied  to  be  an  Ishmaelite.  His  speeches 
and  his  poetry  are  filled  with  protests  against  the 
social  order  which  refuses  to  make  a  place  for  him; 
against  the  system  that  makes  him  an  outcast. 

The  following  poem  entitled  “The  Dishwasher” 
was  written  by  Jim  Seymour,  the  “Hobo  poet.” 
The  second  half,  omitted  here,  is  a  prophecy  of  the 
overthrow  of  the  “system.” 

Alone  in  the  kitchen,  in  grease  laden  steam, 

I  pause  for  a  moment — a  moment  to  dream: 

For  even  a  dishwasher  thinks  of  a  day, 

Wherein  there’ll  be  leisure  for  rest  and  for  play. 

And  now  that  I  pause,  o’er  the  transom  there  floats, 

A  strain  of  the  Traumerei’s  soul  stirring  notes. 

Engulfed  in  a  blending  of  sorrow  and  glee, 

I  wonder  that  music  can  reach  even  me. 

But  now  I  am  thinking;  my  brain  has  been  stirred. 

The  voice  of  a  master,  the  lowly  has  heard. 

The  heart  breaking  sobs  of  the  sad  violin, 

Arouse  the  thoughts  of  the  sweet  might  have  been. 

Had  men  been  born  equal,  the  use  of  their  brain, 

Would  shield  them  from  poverty:  free  them  from  pain, 

Nor  would  I  have  sunk  into  the  black  social  mire, 

Because  of  poor  judgment  in  choosing  a  sire. 

1 H.  Kemp,  The  Cry  of  Youth.,  p.  78.  By  permission  of  the  publisher, 
Mitchell  Kennerley. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


201 


But  now  I  am  only  a  slave  of  the  mill, 

That  plies  and  remodels  me  just  as  it  will; 

That  makes  me  a  dullard  in  brain  burning  heat; 

That  looks  at  rich  viands  not  daring  to  eat; 

That  works  with  his  red,  blistered  hands  ever  stuck, 

Down  deep  in  the  foul  indescribable  muck; 

Where  dishes  are  plunged  seventeen  at  a  time; 

And  washed  in  a  tubful  of  sickening  slime. 

But  on  with  your  clatter;  no  more  must  I  shirk. 

The  world  is  to  me  but  a  nightmare  of  work. 

For  me  not  the  music,  the  laughter  and  song; 

For  no  toiler  is  welcome  amid  the  gay  throng. 

For  me  not  the  smiles  of  the  ladies  who  dine; 

Nor  the  sweet,  clinging  kisses,  begotten  of  wine. 

For  me  but  the  venting  of  low,  sweated  groans, 

That  twelve  hours  a  night  have  instilled  in  my  bones. 

Arturo  Giovannitti  won  his  reputation  as  a  poet 
by  a  poem  in  blank  verse  which  pictures  the  monot¬ 
ony  of  prison  life.  “The  Walker”  was  written  in 
jail,  as  was  “The  Bum,”  the  poem  by  which  Gio¬ 
vannitti  is  best  known  among  the  hobos.  As  an 
I.W.W.  and  a  radical,  his  writings  breathe  the  spirit 
of  protest.  “The  Bum,”  the  first  three  verses  of 
which  follow,  is  an  eloquent  tirade  against  religion: 

The  dust  of  a  thousand  roads,  the  grease 
And  grime  of  slums,  were  on  his  face; 

The  fangs  of  hunger  and  disease 

Upon  his  throat  had  left  their  trace; 

The  smell  of  death  was  in  his  breath, 

But  in  his  eye  no  resting  place. 

Along  the  gutters,  shapeless,  fagged, 

With  drooping  head  and  bleeding  feet, 

Throughout  the  Christmas  night  he  dragged, 

His  care,  his  woe,  and  his  defeat; 

Till,  gasping  hard,  with  face  downward 
He  fell  upon  the  trafficked  street. 


202 


THE  HOBO 


The  midnight  revelry  aloud 

Cried  out  its  glut  of  wine  and  lust 
The  happy,  clean,  indifferent  crowd 
Passed  him  in  anger  and  disgust: 

For — fit  or  rum — he  was  a  bum, 

And  if  he  died  ’twas  nothing  lost.1 

In  the  following  poem,  by  an  unknown  writer, 
“The  Bum  on  the  Rods  and  the  Bum  on  the  Plush” 
states  the  case  of  labor  against  capital  in  the  language 
and  accents  of  the  hobo: 

The  bum  on  the  rods  is  hunted  down 
As  the  enemy  of  mankind, 

The  other  is  driven  around  to  his  club 
Is  feted,  wined,  and  dined. 

And  they  who  curse  the  bum  on  the  rods 
As  the  essence  of  all  that  is  bad, 

Will  greet  the  other  with  a  winning  smile, 

And  extend  the  hand  so  glad. 

The  bum  on  the  rods  is  a  social  flea 
Who  gets  an  occasional  bite, 

The  bum  on  the  plush  is  a  social  leech, 

Blood-sucking  day  and  night. 

The  bum  on  the  rod  is  a  load  so  light 
That  his  weight  we  scarcely  feel, 

But  it  takes  the  labor  of  dozens  of  men 
To  furnish  the  other  a  meal. 

As  long  as  you  sanction  the  bum  on  the  plush 
The  other  will  always  be  there, 

But  rid  yourself  of  the  bum  on  the  plush 
And  the  other  will  disappear. 

Then  make  an  intelligent,  organized  kick, 

Get  rid  of  the  weights  that  crush. 

Don’t  worry  about  the  bum  on  the  rods, 

Get  rid  of  the  bum  on  the  plush. 


1  Arturo  Giovannitti,  Arrows  in  the  Gale ,  p.  40. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


203 


The  following  verses  are  taken  from  a  selection 
written  by  Henry  A.  White,  who  is  a  veteran  of  the 
road  and  for  many  years  connected  with  the  publica¬ 
tion  of  the  Hobo  News .  It  is  entitled  “The  Hobo 
Knows.”  In  it  one  can  detect  an  unfamiliar  note  of 
resignation,  the  resignation  of  an  old  man  who  has 
hoped  and  struggled,  and  learned. 

He  knows  the  whirr  of  the  rolling  wheels, 

And  their  click  on  the  time-worn  joints; 

His  ear  is  attuned  to  the  snap  and  snarl 
Of  the  train,  at  the  rickety  points. 

He  knows  the  camp  by  the  side  of  the  road, 

And  the  “java”  and  “mulligan”  too; 

The  siding  long,  and  the  water  tank 
Are  as  home  to  me  and  you. 

He  knows  the  fright  of  hunger  and  thirst, 

And  of  cold  and  of  rain  as  well; 

Of  raggedy  clothes  and  out-worn  shoes, 

An  awful  tale  he  can  tell. 

He  knows  what  it  means  to  slave  all  day, 

And  at  night  eat  the  vilest  of  fare; 

What  a  tale  he  can  tell  of  loathsome  bunks. 

Cramped  quarters,  and  noisome  air. 

He  knows  what  the  end  of  it  all  will  be 
When  he  crosses  the  line  at  the  goal; 

A  rough,  pine  box,  and  a  pauper’s  grave 
And  he  has  paid  his  toll. 

THE  HOBO’S  OBSERVATIONS  AND  REFLECTIONS 

ON  LIFE 

The  poets  who  have  written  best  about  the  tramp 
are  those  who  have  recorded  their  reflections  on  their 
own  life  and  his.  Robert  W.  Service  sees  in  “The 


204 


THE  HOBO 


Men  That  Don’t  Fit  In”  a  great  group  of  wanderers 
who  move  here  and  there  in  response  to  an  imperious 
wanderlust. 

There’s  a  race  of  men  that  don’t  fit  in, 

A  race  that  can’t  stay  still; 

So  they  break  the  hearts  of  kith  and  kin, 

And  roam  the  world  at  will. 

They  range  the  field  and  they  rove  the  flood, 

And  they  climb  the  mountain  crest, 

Theirs  is  the  curse  of  the  gypsy  blood, 

And  they  don’t  know  how  to  rest. 

If  they  just  went  straight  they  might  go  far; 

They  are  strong  and  brave  and  true; 

But  they’re  always  tired  of  the  things  that  are 
And  they  want  the  strange  and  new. 

They  say,  “  Could  I  find  my  proper  groove 
What  a  deep  mark  I  would  make!” 

So  they  chop  and  change,  and  each  fresh  move 
Is  only  a  fresh  mistake. 

And  each  forgets  as  he  strips  and  runs 
With  a  brilliant,  fitful  pace, 

It’s  the  steady,  quiet,  plodding  ones 
Who  win  the  lifelong  race. 

And  each  forgets  that  his  youth  has  fled, 

Forgets  that  his  prime  is  past, 

Till  he  stands  one  day  with  a  hope  that’s  dead, 

In  the  glare  of  the  truth  at  last.1 

There  are  men  in  the  tramp  class  who  are  always 
chasing  rainbows,  always  expecting  to  “strike  it 
rich”  sometime  and  somewhere.  Bill  Quirke,  for 
many  years  contributor  to  the  Hobo  News ,  gives 
expression  to  this  sentiment  in  the  poem,  “One  Day; 
Some  Way,  Til  Make  a  Stake.”  This  poem  was 

1  From  The  Spell  of  the  Yukon ,  p.  15,  by  Robert  W.  Service,  author  of  Ballads 
of  a  Cheechako,  Rhymes  of  a  Red  Cross  Man ,  and  Ballads  of  a  Bohemian,  published 
by  Barse  &  Hopkins,  Newark,  N  J. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


205 


written  a  few  months  before  Bill  was  killed  by  an 
automobile  in  California.  From  the  heart  of  it  we 
quote: 

For  years  I’ve  drilled  the  rough  pathway, 

And  weathered  many  a  wintry  blast, 

I’ll  make  another  stake  some  day 
For  luck  must  turn  my  way  at  last. 

I’m  far  too  old  for  working,  too 
They  say  my  work  is  almost  through; 

My  ore  assesses  never  a  flake 
But  still  I  hope  to  make  a  stake. 

In  the  Hobo  News  of  August,  1921,  Charles  Thorn- 
burn  records  his  reflections  while  he  contemplates  the 
empty,  beaten  faces  of  the  men  of  the  “stem”: 

With  ever  restless  tread,  they  come  and  go, 

Or  lean  intent  against  the  grimy  wall, 

These  men  whom  fate  has  battered  to  and  fro, 

In  the  grim  game  of  life,  from  which  they  all 
Have  found  so  much  of  that  which  is  unkind, 

Still  hoping  on,  that  fortune  yet  may  mend, 

With  sullen  stare,  and  features  hard  and  lined, 

They  wander  off  to  nowhere,  and  the  end. 

Their  thoughts  we  may  not  fathom,  in  their  eyes 
One  seems  to  sense  a  vision,  as  though  fate 
Had  let  one  little  glimpse  of  fairer  skies 

Brighten  their  souls  before  she  closed  the  gate. 

Yet  have  they  hopes  and  dreams  which  bring  them  peace, 
Adding  to  life’s  flat  liquor  just  the  blend 
Called  courage,  that  their  efforts  may  not  cease 
To  seek  the  gold,  hid  at  the  rainbow’s  end. 

“The  Wanderer”  is  from  the  pen  of  Charles 
Ashleigh.  It  is  said  to  have  been  written  in  jail.  It 
is  a  justification,  not  complete,  of  the  hobo  principle 
of  living  for  the  day  and  by  the  day,  of  enjoying 


206 


THE  HOBO 


the  sweets  of  life,  if  they  can  be  secured,  and  of 
avoiding  its  problems. 

Is  there  no  voice  to  speak  for  these,  our  kin; 

The  strange,  wild  sorrows  for  the  wanderer’s  soul; 

The  shining  comradeship  we  sometimes  win 
When  on  our  wilful  way  to  visioned  goals  ? 

We  are  the  ones  to  whom  the  forests  speak, 

For  whom  the  little  by-streets  run  awry; 

Ships  are  our  mistresses,  and  vaulted  peaks 
Draw  us  unconquered  to  the  tyrant  sky. 

And  what  if  we  in  sordid  corners  sink, 

Or  perish  in  the  crash  of  lawless  fight; 

Our  souls  have  had  the  wine  of  life  to  drink, 

We’ve  had  our  blazing  day.  Let  come  the  night. 

The  hobo  characterizes  the  district  where  the 
employment  agencies  are  located  as  the  “slave 
market.”  Louis  Melis,  prominent  in  Hobohemia 
as  a  soap-boxer,  has  written  a  poem  entitled  “The 
Slave  Market”  from  which  the  following  verses 
have  been  taken: 


The  Slave  Market 

This  is  the  city  of  lost  dreams  and  defeated  hopes; 

Always  you  are  the  mecca  of  the  Jobless, 

The  seekers  after  life  and  the  sweet  illusions  of  happiness. 
Within  your  walls  there  are  the  consuming 
Fires  of  pain,  sorrow  and  eternal  regrets. 

Roses  never  bloom  here;  silken  petals 
Cannot  be  defiled. 

Streets  in  ragged  attire,  sang-froid  in  their  violence; 

Years  come  and  go;  still  your  hideousness  goes  on 
And  mute  outcasts  garnish 
Your  every  rendezvous. 

Blind  pigs,  reeking  with  a  nauseous  smell  everywhere; 
The  so-called  “flops,”  the  lousy  beds 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


207 


Where  slaves  of  mill  and  mine  and  rail  and  shop 
Curl  up  and  drop  away  unconscious, 

In  fair  pretense  of  sleep. 

Employment  sharks  entrapping  men, 

Human  vultures  in  benign  disguise, 

Auctioning  labor  at  a  pittance  per  day. 

And  it’s  always  “What  will  you  give  ?” 

“What  will  you  take  ?” 

The  pocketing  of  fat  commissions; 

Old  men,  young  men,  tramps,  bums,  hobos, 

Laborers  seeking  jobs  or  charity 
Each  visioning  happiness  from  afar. 

They  swarm  the  city  streets,  these  slaves, 

For  all  must  live  and  strive, 

And  always  the  elusive  job  sign 
Greets  their  contemplative  glance. 

A  job — food,  clothing,  shelter; 

Wage  slaves  selling  their  power; 

Oh,  you  Slave  Market,  I  know  you! 

From  timbered  lands,  North,  East,  South  and  West 
From  distant  golden  grain  belts, 

From  endless  miles  of  rail, 

These  workers  float  to  the  city. 

Timber  beasts,  harvesters,  gandy  dancers — 

Adventurers  all.  From  every  clime  and  zone, 

Each  comes  with  hope  of  work  or 
Else  to  blow  his  pile. 

BATTLE  SONGS  OF  THE  HOBOS 

There  are  many  types  of  tramp  songs  but  most  con¬ 
spicuous  are  the  songs  of  protest.  The  I.W.W.  have 
done  much  to  stimulate  song  writing,  mostly  songs  of 
the  struggle  between  the  masses  and  the  classes. 

Most  hobo  songs  are  parodies  on  certain  popular 
airs  or  on  hymns.  One  can  easily  determine  when 
certain  songs  were  written  if  he  knows  when  certain 
popular  airs,  to  which  they  are  fitted,  were  the  rage. 


208 


THE  HOBO 


The  tunes  most  used  by  the  tramp  song  writers  are 
those  that  are  so  well  known  that  the  song  may  be 
sung  by  any  group  of  transients.  When  the  songs 
are  parodies  on  hymns  there  is  usually  a  note  of 
irony  running  through  them.  The  following  is  called 
the  hobo’s  “Harvest  War  Song.’’  It  was  written 
by  Pat  Brennan  and  is  sung  to  the  tune  of 
“Tipperary.” 

We  are  coming  home,  John  Farmer;  We  are  coming  back  to  stay. 
For  nigh  on  fifty  years  or  more,  we’ve  gathered  up  your  hay. 
We  have  slept  out  in  your  hayfields;  we  have  heard  your  morn¬ 
ing  shout; 

We’ve  heard  you  wondering  where  in  hell’s  them  pesky  go- 
abouts  ? 

Chorus 

It’s  a  long  way,  now  understand  me;  it’s  a  long  way  to  town; 
It’s  a  long  way  across  the  prairies,  and  to  hell  with  Farmer 
Brown. 

Here  goes  for  better  wages,  and  the  hours  must  come  down, 

For  we’re  out  for  a  winter’s  stake  this  summer,  and  we  want  no 
scabs  around. 

You’ve  paid  the  going  wages,  that’s  what  kept  us  on  the  bum, 
You  say  you’ve  done  your  duty,  you  chin-whiskered  son-of-a-gun. 
We  have  sent  your  kids  to  college,  but  still  you  rave  and  shout 
And  call  us  tramps  and  hobos,  and  pesky  go-abouts. 

But  now  the  long  wintry  breezes  are  a-shaking  our  poor  frames, 
And  the  long  drawn  days  of  hunger  try  to  drive  us  bos  insane, 
It  is  driving  us  to  action;  we  are  organized  today; 

Us  pesky  tramps  and  hobos  are  coming  back  to  stay. 

Joe  Hill,  whose  real  name  was  Joseph  Hilstrom, 
holds  the  place  of  honor  among  the  I.W.W.’s  as  a  song 
writer.  Before  his  death  he  was  one  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  of  the  I.W.W.  organizers.  His  execution 
in  Utah  in  1915  has  not  lessened  his  popularity  among 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


209 


the  “  Wobblies.”  Most  of  his  songs  are  parodies. 
“The  Tramp”  is  a  parody  on  the  old  tune:  “Tramp, 
Tramp,  Tramp;  the  Boys  Are  Marching.” 

If  you  will  shut  your  trap, 

I  will  tell  you  ’bout  a  chap, 

That  was  broke  and  up  aginst  it  too  for  fair; 

He  was  not  the  kind  to  shirk, 

He  was  looking  hard  for  work, 

But  he  heard  the  same  old  story  everywhere. 

Chorus 

Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  keep  on  a-tramping, 

Nothing  doing  here  for  you; 

If  I  catch  you  ’round  again; 

You  will  wear  the  ball  and  chain, 

Keep  on  tramping,  that’s  the  best  thing  you  can  do. 

He  walked  up  and  down  the  street, 

’Till  the  shoes  fell  off  his  feet; 

In  a  house  he  spied  a  lady  cooking  stew, 

And  he  said,  “How  do  you  do, 

May  I  chop  some  wood  for  you  ?” 

What  the  lady  told  him  made  him  feel  so  blue. 

’Cross  the  street  a  sign  he  read, 

“Work  for  Jesus,”  so  it  said, 

And  he  said,  “Here  is  my  chance,  I’ll  surely  try,” 

And  he  kneeled  upon  the  floor, 

Till  his  knees  got  rather  sore, 

But  at  eating  time  he  heard  the  preacher  say: 

Down  the  street  he  met  a  cop, 

And  the  copper  made  him  stop, 

And  he  asked  him,  “When  did  you  blow  into  town  ?” 
“Come  with  me  to  the  judge.” 

But  the  judge  he  said,  “Oh  fudge! 

Bums  that  have  no  money  needn’t  come  around.” 

“The  Preacher  and  the  Slave,”  also  written  by 
Joe  Hill  and  sung  to  the  tune  of  “Sweet  Bye  and 


210 


THE  HOBO 


Bye,”  is  especially  popular  among  the  malcontents 
because  of  its  attack  upon  religion: 

Long  haired  preachers  come  out  every  night, 

Try  to  tell  you  what’s  wrong  and  what’s  right; 

But  when  asked  how  ’bout  something  to  eat 
They  will  answer  in  voices  so  sweet: 

Chorus 

You  will  eat  bye  and  bye 

In  that  glorious  land  above  the  sky; 

Work  and  pray,  live  on  hay, 

You’ll  get  pie  in  the  sky  when  you  die. 

And  the  starvation  army,  they  play, 

And  they  sing  and  they  clap  and  they  pray, 

Till  they  get  all  your  coin  on  the  drum, 

Then  they’ll  tell  you  when  you’re  on  the  bum: 

Workingmen  of  all  countries,  unite, 

Side  by  side  we  for  freedom  will  fight; 

When  the  world  and  its  wealth  we  have  gained 
To  the  grafters  we’ll  sing  this  refrain: 

Last  Chorus 

You  will  eat  bye  and  bye 

When  you’ve  learned  how  to  cook  and  to  fry; 

Chop  some  wood,  ’twill  do  you  good, 

And  you  will  eat  in  the  sweet  bye  and  bye. 

The  “Portland  County  Jail”  is  one  of  the  few 
songs  of  the  road  that  does  not  wear  out. 

I’m  a  stranger  in  your  city, 

My  name  is  Paddy  Flynn; 

I  got  drunk  the  other  evening. 

And  the  coppers  run  me  in. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


211 


I  had  no  money  to  pay  my  fine, 

No  friends  to  go  my  bail, 

So  I  got  soaked  for  ninety  days 
In  the  Portland  County  Jail. 

Chorus 

Oh,  such  a  lot  of  devils, 

The  like  I  never  saw; 

Robbers,  thieves,  and  highwaymen. 

And  breakers  of  the  law. 

They  sang  a  song  the  whole  night  long, 

And  the  curses  fell  like  hail, 

I’ll  bless  the  day  they  take  me  away 
From  the  Portland  County  Jail. 

The  only  friend  that  I  had  left, 

Was  Happy  Sailor  Jack; 

He  told  me  all  the  lies  he  knew, 

And  all  the  safes  he’s  cracked. 

He  cracked  them  in  Seattle; 

He’d  robbed  the  Western  Mail; 

It  would  freeze  the  blood  of  an  honest  man, 

In  the  Portland  County  Jail. 

HOBO  VERSE  IN  A  LIGHTER  VEIN 

The  characteristic  hobo  is  an  optimist  who  sees 
the  humorous  side  of  many  an  unpleasant  or  danger¬ 
ous  situation.  The  average  seasoned  “bo”  with  full 
stomach  and  money  in  his  pocket  can  enjoy  to  the 
full  the  never-ending  series  of  happenings  on  West 
Madison  Street.  If  there  is  nothing  else,  he  can  be 
amused  at  the  other  man’s  predicament.  Many  of 
these  humorous  experiences  have  found  their  way  into 
poetry. 

The  hobo  is  ironic  even  in  the  face  of  death.  The 
following  poem,  by  an  unknown  writer,  caricatures 
the  contrast  between  the  sentiment  and  the  reality 
of  the  hobo’s  existence. 


212 


THE  HOBO 


The  Hobo’s  Last  Lament 

Beside  a  Western  water-tank 
One  cold  November  day, 

Inside  an  empty  box-car, 

A  dying  hobo  lay; 

His  old  pal  stood  beside  him, 

With  low  and  drooping  head, 

Listening  to  the  last  words, 

As  the  dying  hobo  said: 

“I  am  going  to  a  better  land, 

Where  everything  is  bright, 

Where  beef-stews  grow  on  bushes 
And  you  sleep  out  every  night; 

And  you  do  not  have  to  work  at  all, 

And  never  change  your  socks, 

And  streams  of  goodly  whiskey 
Come  trickling  down  the  rocks. 

“Tell  the  bunch  around  Market  street, 

That  my  face,  no  more,  they’ll  view; 

Tell  them  I’ve  caught  a  fast  freight, 

And  that  I’m  going  straight  on  through. 

Tell  them  not  to  weep  for  me, 

No  tears  in  their  eyes  must  lurk; 

For  I’m  going  to  a  better  land, 

Where  they  hate  the  word  called  work. 

“Hark!  I  hear  her  whistling, 

I  must  catch  her  on  the  fly; 

I  would  like  one  scoop  of  beer 
Once  more  before  I  die.” 

The  hobo  stopped,  his  head  fell  back, 

He’d  sung  his  last  refrain; 

His  old  pal  stole  his  coat  and  hat 
And  caught  an  East-bound  train.1 

A.  W.  Dragstedt,  a  prominent  personality  in 
Chicago’s  Hobohemia,  is  a  man  who  goes  and  comes 

1  Hobo  News ,  June,  1917. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


213 


when  he  pleases.  According  to  hobo  custom,  he  goes 
to  the  country  each  summer,  but  he  usually  spends 
his  leisure  in  town.  He  is  an  optimist.  The  follow¬ 
ing  two  verses  were  written  at  a  time  when  he  was 
down  but  not  downhearted. 

It  takes  a  very  little  for  me  to  be  happy; 

The  world  has  a  smile  for  each  day  that  goes  by; 

My  diet  of  coffee  and  doughnuts  so  snappy, 

Makes  me  very  clever  and  mentally  spry. 

My  shoes  are  but  uppers,  pants  full  of  patches; 

My  stomach  feels  pleased  when  I  fill  it  with  soup; 

When  sleepy  and  tired  my  slumber  I  snatches, 

In  haystacks  and  hallways;  sometimes  in  the  coop. 

“No  Matter  Where  You  Go”  is  a  humorous 
presentation  of  the  futility  of  wandering.  Where  to 
go  next  when  the  hobo  wants  to  move  is  always  a 
problem.  Usually  the  “bo”  gives  an  unfavorable 
report  of  the  district  he  has  just  left. 

Things  are  dull  in  San  Francisco, 

“On  the  bum”  in  New  Orleans; 

“Rawther  punk”  in  cultured  Boston, 

Famed  for  codfish,  pork,  and  beans. 

“On  the  hog”  in  Kansas  City; 

Out  in  Denver  things  are  jarred; 

And  they’re  “beefing”  in  Chicago 
That  the  times  are  rather  hard. 

Not  much  doing  in  St.  Louis; 

It’s  the  same  in  Baltimore; 

Coin  don’t  rattle  in  Seattle 
As  it  did  in  days  of  yore. 

Jobs  are  scarce  around  Atlanta 
All  through  Texas  it  is  still. 

And  there’s  very  little  stirring 
In  the  town  of  Louisville. 


214 


THE  HOBO 


There’s  a  howl  from  Cincinnati, 

New  York  City,  Brooklyn  too; 

In  Milwaukee’s  foamy  limits 
There  is  little  work  to  do. 

In  the  face  of  all  such  rumors, 

It  seems  not  amiss  to  say 

That  no  matter  where  you’re  going 
You  had  better  stay  away. 

POETRY  AND  HOBO  SOLIDARITY 

In  song  and  ballad  the  hobo  expresses  life  as  he 
feels  and  sees  it.  Through  poetry  he  creates  a  back¬ 
ground  of  tradition  and  culture  which  unifies  and  gives 
significance  to  all  his  experiences.  His  ballads  of 
the  road  and  his  battle  songs  of  protest  induce  a 
unanimity  of  sentiment  and  attitudes,  the  strongest 
form  of  group  solidarity  in  the  hobo  world. 

Through  the  universal  language  of  poetry  the 
homeless  man  bridges  the  chasm  of  isolation  that 
separates  him  from  his  fellows.  In  song  and  ballad 
he  communicates  his  memories  and  his  hopes  to  men 
everywhere  who,  fascinated  by  his  experiences,  per¬ 
ceive  in  them  only  a  different  expression  of  the  human 
wishes  of  every  person. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  SOAP  BOX  AND  THE  OPEN  FORUM 


KILLING  time”  is  a  problem  with  the  homeless 
man.  The  movie  and  the  burlesque  are  the 
only  forms  of  commercialized  amusements  within 
the  range  of  his  purse.  Even  these  are  only  patron¬ 
ized  infrequently  and  by  a  few.  For  the  vast 
majority  there  is  no  pastime  save  the  passing  show 
of  the  crowded  thoroughfare.  Most  of  them  spend 
their  leisure  time  shuffling  along  the  street  reading 
the  menu  cards  in  the  cheap  restaurants,  or  in  other 
forms  of  “window  shopping.”  Sometimes  they  stray 
out  of  the  “stem”  into  the  Loop.  Perhaps  they 
will  go  to  the  parks  and  lie  on  the  grass,  or  to  the 
lake  front  where  they  may  sit  down  and  look  out  on 
the  water. 

The  homeless  man,  as  he  meanders  along  the 
street,  is  looking  for  something  to  break  the  monot¬ 
ony.  He  will  stand  on  the  curb  for  hours,  watching 
people  pass.  He  notices  every  conspicuous  person 
and  follows  with  interest,  perhaps  sometimes  with 
envy,  the  wavering  movements  of  every  passing 
drunk.  If  a  policeman  stops  anyone  on  the  street, 
he  also  stops  and  listens  in.  If  he  notices  a  man 
running  into  an  alley  his  curiosity  is  aroused. 
Wherever  he  sees  a  group  gathered,  he  lingers.  He 
will  stop  to  listen  if  two  men  are  arguing.  He  will 
spend  hours  sitting  on  the  curb  talking  with  a 
congenial  companion. 

During  the  summer,  time  hangs  heavier  on  the 
hobo's  hands  than  in  winter.  In  cold  weather,  he 
is  usually  hard  pressed  to  find  food  and  shelter.  If 
the  inclement  weather  overtakes  him  without  funds 


[215 


216 


THE  HOBO 


and  jobless,  and  this  is  generally  the  case,  he  is 
absorbed  with  the  problem  of  “getting  by.”  He  is 
driven  to  his  wits’  end  to  find  a  warm  place  to  sleep 
at  night  and  a  comfortable  place  to  loaf  during  the 
day.  It  oftens  takes  a  whole  day’s  scouting  to 
find  a  place  to  sleep  at  night  and  food  enough  to 
appease  his  gnawing  and  growling  stomach. 

There  are  homeless  men  who  have  time  on  their 
hands  even  in  winter.  They  are  those  who  have 
the  rare  ability  to  save  enough  in  summer  to  live 
in  winter.  The  parks  are  no  longer  inviting.  The 
soap-box  orators  have  either  gone  out  of  business  or 
are  forced  indoors.  The  hobo  follows  them  and, 
where  he  can  afford  it,  helps  to  support  them  inside 
much  as  he  did  in  the  open.  He  spends  more  time 
in  the  movies  and  burlesques  and  will  sit  for  half  a 
day  at  times  watching  one  show. 

Listening  to  speeches  is  a  popular  pastime  in 
Hobohemia.  Nothing,  unless  it  is  reading,  occupies 
so  much  of  the  homeless  man’s  leisure  time. 

STREET  SPEAKING  IN  HOBOHEMIA 

Hobohemia  knows  but  two  types  of  speakers — 
the  soap-box  orator  and  the  evangelist.  The  evange¬ 
list  has  been  longer  on  the  job.  Religious  speakers 
are  usually  associated  with  established  organizations, 
or  they  represent  mission  groups  of  which  there  are 
many  varieties  on  the  “stem.”  There  are  evange¬ 
lists  who  adhere  to  no  faith  or  creed.  They  are 
“free  lances,”  as  most  hobo’speakers  are,  only  their 
message  is  a  religious  one.  Few  of  these  latter  take 
contributions,  and  seldom  do  they  essay  to  make  con¬ 
verts  in  the  sense  of  having  a  following.  They  are 
enthusiasts  driven  into  the  streets  with  the  irresistible 


AN  OUTDOOR  MISSION  MEETING— THE  RELIGIOUS  PLEA 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


217 


urgency  of  their  message.  In  Hobohemia,  where 
time  hangs  heavy  on  the  hobo’s  hands,  there  is  an 
audience  for  every  message. 

In  a  later  chapter1  the  role  of  the  evangelist 
in  the  life  of  Hobohemia  is  considered;  here  we  are 
interested  in  the  soap-box  orators  whose  message  is 
secular  rather  than  other-worldly.  The  man  on  the 
soap  box  is  a  reformer  or  a  revolutionist,  seeking  to 
change  conditions.  The  missionary,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  seeking  less  to  change  conditions  than  to 
change  mankind.  This  is  the  basis  of  the  conflict 
between  their  rival  doctrines.  The  soap-boxers  may 
contend  with  each  other  concerning  what  is  best  for 
the  down-and-out  in  the  here  and  now,  but  they  are 
unanimous  in  their  opposition  to  the  “sky  pilots” 
and  the  “mission  squawkers.”  They  maintain  that 
it  is  more  important  to  enjoy  life  here  than  to  live 
on  the  prospect  of  joy  hereafter.  They  have  lost 
patience  with  the  preacher  because  he  only  promises 
“pie  in  the  sky  when  you  die,”  and  they  want  the 
pie  now. 

The  men  and  women  who  bring  religion  to  the 
tramp  in  Hobohemia  have  taken  root  in  the  life  of  the 
“stem.”  Their  street  singing,  their  preaching  and 
praying,  although  little  heeded  by  the  hobo,  would 
be  greatly  missed  if  absent.  But  the  missionary, 
transplanted  from  another  area  of  life,  remains  more 
or  less  of  an  alien.  The  soap-box  reformer  is  no  less 
of  an  institution  and  he  is,  moreover,  native  to  the 
soil.  He  is  closer  to  the  actual  life  and  mundane 
interests  of  the  homeless  man.  He  stands  on  the 
curbstone  and  publishes  his  opinions  on  the  great 
questions  of  the  day  in  a  positive  and  convincing 


1  Chapter  xvii,  “Missions  and  Welfare  Organizations.” 


218 


THE  HOBO 


manner,  and  his  ideas  are  generally  couched  in  lan¬ 
guage  that  the  man  on  the  street  can  understand. 
The  hobo's  intellectual  interests  revolve  about  the 
problem  of  labor.  The  soap-box  orator  is  the  hobo’s 
principal  source  of  information  on  this  topic. 

Soap-boxers  are  “free  lances”  most  of  the  time. 
Either  they  are  out  of  harmony  with  all  organiza¬ 
tions  or  no  organization  has  been  willing  to  adopt 
them.  Those  who  make  street  speaking  a  profession 
are  a  great  deal  like  the  ancient  sophists.  They  are 
able  to  plead  one  cause  today  and  a  different  cause 
tomorrow.  Their  allegiance  is  to  be  had  by  any 
group  that  can  make  the  proper  bid.  With  some  of 
them  the  inducement  must  be  a  financial  one,  while 
others  are  interested  only  in  ideas.  If  the  idea 
attracts  them  they  will  take  up  the  new  angle  of  the 
subject  with  the  same  enthusiasm  that  they  did  the 
old.  In  this  respect  they  are  influenced  by  public 
opinion.  They  love  to  harangue  the  crowds  but  they 
like  to  have  the  crowd  on  their  side. 

EDUCATING  THE  PROLETARIAT 

Soap-boxers  usually  take  themselves  seriously, 
though  their  audiences  do  not  always  do  so.  They 
take  themselves  seriously  in  spite  of  their  frequent 
and  often  abrupt  changes  in  positions  on  the  issues 
they  discuss.  They  are  usually  made  to  explain 
these  changes,  and  these  explanations,  if  not  always 
logical,  are  usually  sincere.  They  invariably  give 
their  best  thoughts  on  the  subject  they  discuss. 
Whatever  they  have  gleaned  from  the  available 
sources  they  are  striving  to  express  in  language  that 
is  live  and  understandable  to  the  man  on  the  street. 
These  efforts  to  clear  the  issues,  to  spread  propaganda 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


219 


or  whatever  it  may  be  called,  is  termed  by  the  soap¬ 
boxers,  “education.” 

Not  all  the  “stem”  intellectuals  who  assume  the 
burden  of  educating  the  proletariat  use  the  soap 
box.  Many  of  them  wield  the  pen.  The  latter  are, 
in  the  main,  free-lance  writers,  and  most  of  their 
productions  are  tinctured  with  “red.”  But  they 
are  generally  able  to  catch  the  ear  of  the  down-and- 
out,  whether  he  is  a  hobo  or  not.  The  writings  of 
these  cloistered  radicals,  who  are  striving  to  bring 
the  chaotic  proletariat  to  a  unity  of  the  faith,  provide 
the  soap-box  pulpiteer  with  facts  and  ideas  which 
he  interprets  and  passes  on  to  his  curbstone  audience 
in  the  shape  of  poems,  songs,  articles,  and  essays. 
The  writers  provide,  for  them,  an  abundance  of 
material  out  of  which  the  orators  build  their  castles. 
Most  of  these  literary  radicals  are  optimistic  about 
the  success  of  their  efforts  to  “get  the  worker’s  mind 
right,”  and  thus  prepare  him  for  the  new  order. 
The  masses  must  be  educated,  but  the  soap-boxer, 
whose  burden  it  is,  must  himself  be  educated,  and 
that  is  the  job  of  the  writer  who  works  behind  the 
scenes. 

Just  how  much  education  the  Hobohemian  pro¬ 
letariat  gets  from  this  speaking  and  reading  is  not 
easily  estimated.  They  learn  something  about  the 
class  struggle,  industrial  organization,  and  politics. 
Sometimes  an  observation  on  science  or  literature 
or  art  will  fall  from  a  speaker’s  lips,  but  most  of 
these  observations  are  new  only  to  the  stranger  in 
the  class.  The  old-timer,  however,  hears  only  old 
ideas  restated;  or,  at  best,  new  facts  and  figures 
interpreted  to  support  old  ideas.  It  is  like  a  game 
with  a  limited  number  of  pieces  and  a  limited  number 


220 


THE  HOBO 


of  moves.  Sometimes,  to  be  sure,  a  speaker 
endeavors  to  serve  “science”  to  the  “floating  frater¬ 
nity.”  Lectures  on  biology,  psychology,  sociology, 
or  economics  may  be  heard  any  evening  or  holiday 
during  the  summer.  Most  of  these  lectures  go  over 
the  heads  of  the  audience,  and  it  is  questionable 
whether  the  speakers  have  sufficient  background  to 
speak  intelligently  of  the  sciences  they  are  attempting 
to  expound. 

This  effort  to  educate  the  proletariat  is,  never¬ 
theless,  not  altogether  without  results.  It  gives 
men  something  to  occupy  their  minds.  It  gives  them 
some  understanding  of  their  common  interests; 
creates  a  certain  amount  of  solidarity  and,  perhaps, 
best  of  all,  “kills  time.”  Some  speakers  realize  this 
and  declare  that  the  soap  box  is  primarily  a  kind  of 
entertainment.  One  man  makes  it  a  point  to  try 
to  amuse  his  crowd  as  well  as  to  “instruct”  them. 
“You’ve  got  to  keep  ’em  interested.  You  have  to 
amuse  them  and  make  ’em  laugh  before  you  can  get 
any  ideas  into  their  heads.  Whenever  things  get 
dry,  I  leave  an  opening  for  a  drunk  or  someone  to 
ask  me  a  question  or  crack  a  joke,  and  interest  picks 
up  again.” 

An  Afternoon  Series  of  Soap-Box  Orations 

Go.  During  a  Sunday  in  July,  1922,  no  less  than  twenty  men 
spoke  on  the  box  at  the  corner  of  Jefferson  and  Madison  streets; 
and  as  many  topics  were  treated.  In  the  afternoon  the  following 
speakers  shared  the  time: 

1.  The  meeting  was  opened  by  a  man  who  borrowed  a  box 
from  a  nearby  fruit  stand.  He  tried  to  get  another  man  to 
speak  first  so  that  he  would  not  have  to  hurt  his  voice  gathering 
the  crowd,  but  no  one  cared  to  start.  He  talked  for  twenty 
minutes  about  graft  in  the  patent-medicine  trade.  He  had  a  very 
catchy  speech  well  tempered  with  humor  and  he  gathered  a  big 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


221 


crowd.  Evidently  he  had  made  a  study  of  the  patent-medicine 
business  and  his  speech  was  an  “exposure”  of  the  game.  He 
finished  by  selling  some  pamphlets  dealing  with  the  subject. 

2.  The  second  speaker  was  an  I.W.W.  who  talked  for  fifteen 
minutes  on  education.  He  was  a  good  talker  and  held  the  crowd. 
He  wound  up  by  selling  some  I.W.W.  literature  and  periodicals 
in  which  the  thoughts  of  economists  had  been  reduced  from  the 
difficult  academic  language  to  the  understanding  of  the  man  on 
the  street.  He  also  passed  out  some  literature,  i.e.,  old  issues 
of  the  Solidarity ,  and  I.W.W.  papers. 

3.  Another  I.W.W.  talked  twenty  minutes  on  organization. 

He  argued  that  the  rich  man  organizes  and  for  that  reason  is 

successful.  He  does  not  want  the  poor  man  at  the  bottom  to 

organize  because  he  fears  that  he  will  not  be  able  to  keep  him 
at  the  bottom.  He  didn’t  blame  the  rich  man  for  organizing; 

he  blamed  the  poor  man  for  not  organizing.  He  gave  some 

literature  away  and  sold  some. 

4.  A  speech  on  superstition  followed.  It  lasted  twenty 
minutes  and  was  aimed  at  a  mission  group  that  was  holding  a 
meeting  across  the  street.  The  argument  was  that  the  Bible  and 
the  church  were  the  most  powerful  instruments  in  the  hands  of  rich 
men  for  keeping  the  poor  man  down.  No  collection  was  taken. 

5.  A  twenty-minute  speech  on  the  economic  organization  of 
industry  was  given  by  a  man  who  took  great  pains  to  remind  the 
crowd  that  he  had  spent  seven  years  to  learn  all  about  it.  He 
made  a  plea  for  the  co-operation  of  labor  to  combat  the  organi¬ 
zation  of  capital.  No  collection  was  taken. 

6.  The  next  man  argued  that  the  unemployment  problem  is 
caused  by  two  things;  the  overcrowding  of  population  and  the 
concentration  of  wealth  into  the  hands  of  a  few.  Eighty-five 
per  cent  of  the  people  had  but  15  per  cent  of  the  wealth  and  15 
per  cent  of  the  people  had  85  per  cent  of  the  wealth  or  more  than 
they  could  possibly  consume.  This  man  usually  takes  up  a 
collection  on  the  ground  that  he  is  handicapped  physically,  but 
he  did  not  on  this  occasion.  He  spoke  for  twenty  minutes. 

7.  No  more  speakers  wanted  the  box  so  a  drunk  got  on  the 
stand  and  asked  for  the  attention  of  the  crowd.  He  furnished 
amusement  for  fifteen  minutes.  He  was  witty  but  easily  led 
from  subject  to  subject. 

No  speaker  talked  long  enough  to  bore  the  crowd.  Each 
speaker,  when  he  had  finished,  yielded  the  box  to  his  successor. 


222 


THE  HOBO 


The  crowd  was  a  characteristic  Hobohemian  gathering,  willing 
to  stand  so  long  as  they  could  be  interested.  Like  most  such 
gatherings,  it  kept  diminishing  and  increasing  in  size.  Some 
would  stand  in  front  and  listen  for  an  hour  while  others  would 
only  stop  a  few  minutes  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  gathering.  The 
reaction  to  the  speakers  was  for  the  most  part  sympathetic. 
Occasionally  a  man  on  the  sidelines  would  be  seen  to  frown 
disapproval  but  it  is  the  habit  of  those  who  are  not  interested 
to  worm  their  way  out  of  the  group  and  go  their  way. 

While  the  sixth  speaker  of  the  above  list  was  talking  the 
crowd  was  attracted  to  the  side  by  a  discussion  between  one  of 
the  previous  speakers  and  another  man.  The  argument  attracted 
so  many  listeners  that  the  speaker  was  irritated  and  he  called  to 
one  of  the  men  engaged  in  the  discussion,  “Say  B — ,  do  you 
think  that’s  a  square  deal  ?”  “Sorry  C — ,  I  didn’t  know  we  were 
disturbing  you.”  The  crowd  on  the  side  dispersed  and  gathered 
around  the  speaker  on  the  box. 

SOAP-BOX  ETHICS  AND  TACTICS 

Just  as  there  are  certain  unwritten  laws  that  are 
found  in  the  jungle  camps,  so  there  are  unwritten 
laws  that  the  soap-boxer  observes.  Regardless  of 
how  much  they  differ  in  their  schemes,  they  are 
seldom  personal  in  their  opposition  to  one  another. 
Soap-boxers  behave  toward  one  another  when  not  on 
the  box  much  as  lawyers  do  when  they  are  out  of  the 
courtroom,  and  even  while  on  the  box  they  consider 
one  another's  interests.  For  example,  a  speaker 
in  resigning  the  rostrum  to  his  successor  will  fre¬ 
quently  close  with  some  such  statement  as  this: 
“I’d  like  to  talk  longer  on  this  subject  but  there  are 
other  speakers  here  and  they  have  something  to  say 
that  you  might  like  to  hear.” 

The  practice  of  taking  up  personal  collections  is 
looked  down  upon  by  most  curbstone  speakers. 
They  feel  that  the  soap  box  should  not  be  exploited. 
Collections  are  not  always  approved  by  the  audiences. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


223 


Some  men  label  their  speeches  “lectures”  and  “pass 
the  hat”  on  the  ground  that  they  have  spent  years 
in  getting  the  information.  When  they  “perform 
the  hat  trick  on  the  ‘simpoleons’  [simpletons]”  they 
regard  it  as  a  compensation  for  the  role  they  play  as 
educators.  They  chew  fine  the  complex  intellectual 
food  so  that  it  may  be  taken  up  by  the  untrained 
and  unlearned.  But  unpopular  as  is  the  practice 
of  collecting  money,  it  is  not  a  barrier.  The  audience 
is  exceedingly  tolerant  toward  the  hat-passer  and 
more  so  if  he  has  a  good  “line”  of  talk,  or  if  he  is 
handicapped. 

Most  men  who  talk  to  Hobohemian  crowds  make 
their  living  by  selling  some  kind  of  literature.  Some¬ 
times  they  sell  pamphlets  they  have  written  them¬ 
selves,  or  they  sell  pamphlets  or  periodicals  on  a 
commission.  Getting  money  in  this  way  is  not 
unpopular  among  the  soap-boxers.  It  is  a  practice 
that  is  rather  favored,  for  it  is  the  best  way  of  getting 
the  down-and-out  to  thinking,  and  if  the  soap-box 
orators  are  united  on  any  one  thing  it  is  this:  that 
the  proletariat  must  be  educated. 

One  of  the  favorite  methods  of  distributing  litera¬ 
ture  is  to  sell  it  from  the  box.  Enthusiastic  persons 
in  the  crowd  often  buy  a  paper  and  pay  for  several 
others  to  be  distributed  from  the  box.  Sometimes 
a  man  will  take  the  stand  and  dispose  of  a  hundred 
papers  or  pamphlets  in  a  few  moments  by  persuading 
those  who  have  money  to  buy  for  those  who  have  none. 

A  man  who  entertains  the  “slum  proletariat” 
need  not  be  without  status  because  he  lives  by  street 
speaking.  Most  of  them  either  directly  or  indirectly 
earn  their  living  in  this  way,  though  many  of  them 
would  not  admit  it.  If  a  man  can  plead  the  cause 


224 


THE  HOBO 


of  the  under  dog  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  man  on 
the  street,  if  he  has  a  philosophy  that  pleases  the 
crowd,  and  if  he  can  present  it  in  an  attractive 
manner,  very  few  resent  his  passing  the  hat. 

So  with  all  their  contentiousness  the  soap-box 
orators  manage  to  keep  on  speaking  terms,  and  rather 
informally  turn  favors  to  one  another.  Seldom  do 
they  “ knock”  one  another,  and  seldom  do  they 
crowd  one  another  away  from  a  corner  or  place  one 
another  in  embarrassing  positions.  In  this  they  have 
gone  farther  toward  reaching  a  unity  of  purpose  than 
the  various  mission  groups  who  compete  on  opposite 
corners  for  the  same  crowds. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  soap-boxing  is  a  game 
that  is  without  its  tricks.  There  are  tricks  for 
getting  the  crowds,  tricks  of  holding  the  crowds,  and 
tricks  for  exploiting  the  crowds.  Speakers  do  not 
like  to  be  the  first  one  up  on  the  box,  nor  do  they  like 
to  be  the  last  one  up  when  the  crowd  has  become  tired. 
If  a  man  wants  to  pass  the  hat,  it  is  to  his  advantage 
to  get  the  first  chance  at  the  crowd.  Men  will  do 
considerable  jockeying  to  get  on  the  box  just  when 
they  think  it  will  be  to  their  advantage. 

FREE-LANCE  VERSATILITY 

Street  speakers  who  stand  before  the  same  audi¬ 
ences  one  or  more  times  a  week  throughout  the 
year  tend  to  wear  out.  Some  of  them  are  resourceful 
enough  to  find  something  new  to  say,  but  others 
find  it  difficult  to  say  old  things  in  a  new  way,  so 
they  are  likely  to  fall  into  the  habit  of  repeating 
themselves.  Sometimes  they  try  to  keep  from  grow¬ 
ing  stale  by  speaking  in  as  many  places  as  possible, 
but  since  their  audiences  are  limited  to  the  Hobo- 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


225 


hemian  population  they  are  always  talking  to  a 
number  who  have  heard  them  say  the  same  things 
before.  After  a  speaker  has  made  the  rounds  of  all 
the  corners  he  is  forced  to  get  a  new  “line.” 

Some  men,  however,  persist  in  delivering  old 
thread-bare  messages  in  their  old,  well-worn  way. 
The  speeches  of  some  men  are  so  well  known  that 
the  only  interest  is  one  of  curiosity.  The  crowd 
listens  to  see  if  anything  was  left  out.  The  hobby 
of  one  free-lance  speaker  is  Henry  George  and  the 
Single  Tax.  To  the  crowd  he  is  the  “P  and  P” 
man,  because  he  usually  ends  his  speeches  by  selling 
copies  of  Progress  and  Poverty  at  “cost.”  Everyone 
who  has  been  in  town  long  enough  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  principal  soap-boxers  is  familiar 
with  this  man’s  “line,”  but  usually  he  hears  him  again, 
partly,  perhaps,  because  of  his  apparent  sincerity. 

Most  soap-boxers,  when  they  find  themselves 
growing  stale,  are  able  to  change.  B’s  hobby  for 
a  long  time  has  been  a  speech  on  birth  control, 
which  he  followed  by  selling  some  books  on  sex,  but 
he  wore  this  subject  out  and  recently  changed  to  a 
speech  on  superstition  at  the  close  of  which  he  sells 
literature  of  an  anti-religious  nature.  Another 
speaker  whose  speech  on  patent  medicine  and  quack 
doctors  finally  lost  its  novelty  is  now  talking  on 
birth  control.  Another  has  gone  from  trade  union¬ 
ism  to  the  Ku  Klux  Klan.  An  old-timer  on  Madison 
Street  said  of  a  certain  speaker:  “That  man  used 
to  be  with  the  I.W.W.;  then  he  went  over  to  How’s 
organization  and  now  he’s  free  lancing.”  “What  is 
his  line  now?”  is  a  question  that  is  commonly 
asked  in  regard  to  a  soap-box  pulpiteer.  They  are 
expected  to  change. 


226 


THE  HOBO 


In  search  of  variety  and  for  financial  reasons, 
free  lancers  of  ability  hire  out  as  campaigners  for  the 
political  parties.  “Where  is  John  L.  now  ?”  asks 
one  man.  “Oh,  he’s  up  in  Wisconsin  campaigning 
for  Senator  LaFollette.  Last  month  he  was  in 
Missouri  stumping  for  Senator  Reed.”  John  carried 
credentials  from  both  the  Democrats  and  Republi¬ 
cans  and  he  can  plead  the  cause  of  either. 

The  role  of  the  soap-boxer,  like  that  of  the  ancient 
sophist,  is  that  of  instructor  or  entertainer.  Men 
go  in  search  of  these  curbstone  gatherings.  On 
Sundays  and  holidays  the  crowd  expects  them. 
Homeless  men  who  have  a  job  in  the  city  during  the 
week  spend  the  Sunday  on  the  “stem”  partly  in 
order  to  hear  the  evangelists  and  soap-boxers.  It 
is  their  life.  They  like  to  see  old  friends  on  the  street, 
but  they  like  especially  to  see  familiar  faces  on  the 
box. 

THE  OPEN  FORUM 

The  open  forum  is  a  place,  usually  indoors,  where 
persons  may  gather  in  formal  meeting  to  discuss 
topics  of  interest.  It  is  usually  a  winter  retreat  for 
the  soap-boxers  and  their  followers.  In  order  to 
maintain  a  forum  it  is  necessary  to  hire  a  hall  and 
govern  themselves  by  some  sort  of  organization. 
The  “Hobo  College”  is  probably  the  most  con¬ 
spicuous  open  forum  in  Chicago.  It  is  but  a  branch 
of  a  chain  of  “colleges”  that  are  maintained  in  the 
larger  cities  of  the  country  by  the  wealth  of  James 
Eads  How,  the  “millionaire  hobo.”  It  has  oper¬ 
ated  in  Chicago  nearly  every  winter  since  1907. 
Scarcely  a  soap-boxer  in  Chicago  has  not  at  some 
time  been  associated  with  this  institution.  Many 
of  them  at  some  time  have  either  been  officers  or 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


227 


leading  lights  of  the  “college. ”  The  I.W.W.  generally 
maintains  a  hall  where  a  forum  is  conducted  during 
the  winter,  though  it  does  not  offer  the  variety  of 
discussion  and  subjects  that  the  “college”  does. 

The  forum  is  far  from  being  a  harmonious  nestling 
ground  for  hibernating  soap-boxers.  It  is  rather  a 
veritable  battle  ground  of  contending  factions. 
These  advocates  of  the  “new  society”  who  agree  and 
disagree  so  smilingly  in  the  open  often  become  caustic 
and  bitter  in  their  attacks  when  forced  to  share  the 
same  hall.  There  close  association  generates  factions 
and  cliques.  There  are  always  the  “ins”  and  the 
“outs.”  New  leaders  are  ever  getting  the  chair, 
and  old  policies  are  constantly  replaced.  The 
“Hobo  College”  for  the  winter  of  1922-23  had  no 
less  than  six  secretaries  in  as  many  months  and  three 
complete  “house  cleanings.” 

The  order  of  procedure  at  the  “Hobo  College” 
is  practically  the  same  as  in  most  of  the  open  forums. 
Meetings  are  held  on  the  afternoons  or  evenings  at 
set  dates,  or  there  is  a  regular  program  of  a  certain 
number  of  meetings  a  week.  On  Sunday  two 
meetings  are  often  held.  Meetings  and  programs 
are  advertised  in  conspicuous  places.  The  meetings 
are  so  arranged  that  there  is  time  at  the  end  of  the 
principal  speech  for  criticism,  remarks,  or  questions 
from  the  floor,  after  which  the  speaker  has  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  defend  himself.  If  distinguished  visitors 
are  present,  they  are  usually  called  upon.  Meetings 
at  the  “Hobo  College”  are  different  from  most 
forums  in  that  they  usually  terminate  with  a  lunch. 

The  open  forum  has  some  advantages  over  the 
street  meetings.  The  group  is  more  select  and  less 
transient.  A  subject  for  discussion  is  viewed  from 


228 


THE  HOBO 


various  angles  by  different  speakers  who  have  come 
at  least  partially  prepared.  On  the  soap  box  the 
problem  of  disciplining  the  crowd  is  left  entirely  to 
the  speaker.  Once  he  loses  their  interest  they  either 
harass  him  or  desert  him.  In  the  forum  the  audience 
is  honor  bound  to  remain  until  the  speaker  has 
finished.  In  the  open  forum  speakers  may  be  invited 
who  are  supposed  to  lend  a  certain  distinction  to  the 
occasion.  No  one  can  lend  distinction  to  a  soap  box. 
Not  the  least  advantage  of  the  forum  over  the  soap 
box  is  that  most  of  the  audience  can  participate  in  the 
meeting.  The  disadvantage  is  that  it  is  not  so 
accessible  and  hence  becomes  exclusive. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  “How  do  soap¬ 
boxers  get  initiated  into  the  game  of  outdoor  speak¬ 
ing?”  For  most  of  them  the  answer  is,  “In  the 
open  forum.”  In  the  open  forum  the  beginners,  the 
aspirants,  learn  to  take  part  in  the  discussions. 
They  learn  here  to  find  words  to  express  themselves. 
In  the  forum  they  take  sides  and  learn  to  defend 
or  oppose  propositions,  and  they  learn  to  order  and 
present  their  thoughts. 

The  forum  has  been  described  as  a  refuge  for 
the  hibernating  soap-boxer.  It  is  more  than  a 
refuge;  it  is  a  study  center.  It  is  to  the  free-lance 
speaker  what  a  summer  school  is  to  the  teacher; 
an  opportunity  to  relax  and  “polish  up.” 

THE  SOAP  BOX  AND  HOBO  OPINION 

Soap-boxers  all  say  that  they  have  enjoyed  more 
liberty  in  Chicago  than  in  most  cities.  Chicago 
police  have  always  taken  a  generous  and  liberal 
attitude  toward  the  curbstone  forum.  A  man  who 
has  been  prominent  in  several  free-speech  fights  says: 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


229 


The  free-lance  speaker  is  a  great  help  to  the  police  in  this 
town.  It’s  easier  to  handle  these  crowds  when  they  have  some¬ 
one  to  listen  to.  When  a  man  gets  restless,  it  gives  him  some¬ 
thing  to  think  about.  If  you  don’t  believe  it  just  go  into  a  town 
where  the  soap-boxer  is  suppressed  and  see  how  bitter  the  abos” 
are. 

The  role  of  the  soap-boxer  is  to  make  hobos 
think.  He  succeeds  to  a  greater  extent  in  this  than 
we  realize.  In  his  efforts  to  hold  his  audience  for 
half  an  hour  he  throws  off  a  great  many  ideas.  Much 
of  this  ammunition  is  fired  in  the  air,  but  not  all  of 
it.  What  he  actually  does  is  to  keep  the  minds  of 
his  hearers  on  objective  things.  Otherwise  their 
thoughts  would  turn  inward,  and  for  the  homeless 
man  introspection  is  not  a  pleasant  pastime. 

It  is  probably  true  that  the  soap-box  orator 
makes  no  permanent  impression  on  his  audience. 
He  does,  to  be  sure,  give  voice  to  some  ill-defined 
sentiments  in  which  all  are  agreed.  But  no  practical 
unanimity  is  ever  achieved.  This  agitation  starts 
no  mass  movement.  There  has  never  been  an  effec¬ 
tive  permanent  organization  among  hobos.  The 
very  nature  of  the  hobo  mind  resents  every  kind  of 
discipline  that  any  form  of  organization  would 
impose.  He  is  by  circumstance,  tradition,  and 
temperament  an  individualist. 

What  of  the  soap-box  reformer  and  revolutionist  ? 
Is  he  a  menace  or  merely  a  joke  ?  The  curbstone 
orator  is  not  an  agitator  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that 
word.  He  is  merely  a  thinking  hobo.  In  him  the 
homeless  man  becomes  articulate.  It  is  something  to 
these  outcast  men  to  hear  in  these  curbstone  forums 
the  reverberations  of  their  own  unuttered  thoughts. 
It  is  something  to  the  homeless  man  merely  to  have 
a  voice. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  HOBO  ORGANIZATION 


THE  hobo  is  an  individualistic  person.  Not  even 
the  actors  and  artists  can  boast  a  higher  propor¬ 
tion  of  egocentrics.  They  are  the  modern  Ishmaels 
who  refuse  to  fit  into  the  routine  of  conventional 
social  life.  Resenting  every  sort  of  social  discipline, 
they  have  “cut  loose”  from  organized  society. 

For  them  there  is  only  the  open  road  which  offers 
an  existence  without  discipline,  without  organization, 
without  control.  To  the  restless  and  dissatisfied  the 
life  of  a  vagabondage  is  a  challenge,  the  most  elemen¬ 
tary  way  by  which  men  seek  to  escape  from  reality. 

Out  of  this  unrest,  efforts  have  arisen  through 
which  the  hobo  has  striven  to  materialize  his  dreams. 
Among  the  organizations  initiated  or  promoted  by 
migrants  are  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World 
(I.W.W.),  the  International  Brotherhood  Welfare 
Association  (I.B.W.A.),  the  Migratory  Workers’ 
Union  (M.W.U.),  the  United  Brotherhood  of  Ameri¬ 
can  Laborers,  and  the  Ramblers. 

INDUSTRIAL  WORKERS  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  I.W.W.  was  formed  in  Chicago  in  July,  1905. 
Its  headquarters  are  here  and  its  conventions  have 
almost  invariably  been  held  here.  Chicago  has  been 
favored  by  the  migratory  radicals  because  it  is  a 
transportation  center,  and  because  of  its  tolerant 
attitude  toward  street  speakers. 

Theoretically,  the  I.W.W.  is  an  organization  of 
all  industrial  workers,  but  it  has  been  most  enthusi¬ 
astically  supported,  however,  by  the  hobos.  It  was 
conceived  in  the  “stem,”  and  cradled  and  nurtured 

230] 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


231 


by  the  floating  workers.  The  hobo  has  always  been 
identified  with  it  and,  in  the  West,  has  played  a  mili¬ 
tant  role  in  fighting  its  battles. 

“The  backwardness  and  unprogressiveness  of 
trade  unions  as  organized  in  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor,  and  the  impotency  of  trade  union  as  organ¬ 
ized  in  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  and  the 
impotency  of  political  socialism  to  safeguard  the 
ballot  and  provide  the  organs  necessary  to  carry  on 
production  in  the  future  society,”  are  the  reasons,  on 
paper  at  least,  for  the  existence  of  the  I.W.W.  It  is 
an  effort  to  organize  the  workers  along  industrial 
lines,  that  is,  to  substitute,  for  trade  unions,  industrial 
unions  for  all  the  workers  in  one  industry.  All 
the  industrial  unions,  metal-workers,  construction- 
workers,  seamen,  agricultural-workers,  it  seeks  to 
combine  into  one  mammoth  organization  called  the 
“One  Big  Union.” 

The  structure  of  the  I.W.W.  is  simple.  The  unit 
is  the  industrial  local,  which  is  composed  of  all  the 
workers  of  an  industry  in  a  locality.  The  various 
locals  of  an  industry  combine  to  form  an  industrial 
department.  The  departments  join  together  to  form 
the  “One  Big  Union.”  The  organization  is  managed 
by  a  general  secretary  who  is  virtually  the  executive 
head.  The  general  secretary-treasurer  is  assisted 
by  an  executive  board  elected  by  the  six  unions  hav¬ 
ing  the  largest  membership.  A  seventh  member  is 
elected  by  the  other  smaller  unions. 

Some  of  the  “wobbly”  spokesmen  boast  of  100,000 
members,  but  that  is  an  overestimate.  The  mem¬ 
bership  is  fluctuating  and  rises  and  falls  with  the 
seasons,  but  perhaps  it  has  reached  100,000  at  times. 
The  membership  is  “on  the  road”  most  of  the  time, 


232 


THE  HOBO 


and  even  the  locals  are  migratory,  so  that  definite 
figures  are  not  always  at  hand.  The  dues  are  fifty 
cents  a  month,  so  that  many  loyal  members  are  not 
always  in  good  standing.  The  members  in  good 
standing  represent  probably  but  a  third  or  a  fourth 
of  the  men  who  designate  themselves  I.W.W.’s.1 

When  certain  seasonal  occupations  begin,  as  the 
harvest  fields,  the  construction  camps,  and  lumbering 
camps,  the  organizers  set  to  work  enrolling  members. 
Rumors  circulate  that  no  one  will  be  permitted  to 
work  on  certain  jobs  unless  he  carries  a  red  card; 
that  the  “wobblies”  will  throw  all  non-members  off 
freight  trains;  that  all  the  other  workers  are  taking 
out  membership  cards;  that  the  employers  of  a 
certain  district  are  going  to  cut  the  wages  of  transient 
labor,  or  that  in  other  localities  the  wages  are  good 
because  the  I.W.W.  will  not  permit  anyone  without 
a  red  card  to  work. 

The  I.W.W.  as  an  organization  does  not  officially 
sanction  methods  of  intimidation,  and  will  take  action 
against  any  cases  brought  to  its  attention.  How¬ 
ever,  force  and  fear  get  members.  Men  who  are 
seeking  work  in  a  community  on  jobs  over  which  the 
“wobblies”  have  assumed  control  will  take  out 
cards  to  avoid  conflict.  Men  will  join  the  organiza¬ 
tion  to  facilitate  “riding  the  rods/’  Memberships  for 
convenience  only  are  short  lived,  seldom  enduring  over 
the  summer. 

APPEAL  OF  THE  I.W.W. 

The  I.W.W.  does  not  depend  wholly  on  fear  to 
win  its  members.  The  great  appeal  of  the  I.W.W., 

1  According  to  the  financial  statement  for  the  I.W.W.  for  May  and  June 
of  1922,  there  were  in  good  standing  18,234  members.  This,  it  must  be  remem¬ 
bered,  was  just  before  the  summer  membership  drive,  which  is  said  to  have 
recruited  over  iBjOoo^additional  members. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


233 


as  of  all  other  radical  organizations,  is  to  the  spirit 
of  unrest  that  is  a  part  of  every  hobo’s  make-up. 
The  I.W.W.  program  offers  a  ray  of  hope  to  the  man 
who  is  down  and  out.  Why  the  “wobbly”  creed 
makes  so  stirring  an  appeal  to  the  hobo  may  be  best 
understood  by  quoting  the  preamble  of  its  con¬ 
stitution: 

The  working  class  and  the  employing  class  have  nothing  in 
common.  There  can  be  no  peace  as  long  as  hunger  and  want  are 
found  among  millions  of  the  working  people  and  the  few,  who 
make  up  the  employing  class,  have  all  the  good  things  of  life. 

Between  these  two  classes  a  struggle  must  go  on  until  the 
workers  of  the  world  organize  as  a  class,  take  possession  of  the 
earth  and  machinery  of  production,  and  abolish  the  wage 
system. 

We  find  that  the  centering  of  the  management  of  industries 
into  fewer  and  fewer  hands  makes  the  trade  unions  unable  to 
cope  with  the  ever  growing  power  of  the  employing  class.  The 
trade  unions  foster  a  state  of  affairs  which  allows  one  set  of 
workers  to  be  pitted  against  another  set  of  workers  in  the  same 
industry,  thereby  helping  to  defeat  one  another  in  wage  wars. 
Moreover  the  trade  unions  aid  the  employing  class  to  mislead 
the  workers  into  the  belief  that  the  working  class  have  interests 
in  common  with  their  employers. 

These  conditions  can  be  changed  and  the  interest  of  the  work¬ 
ing  class  upheld  only  by  an  organization  formed  in  such  a  way 
that  all  its  members  in  any  one  industry,  or  in  all  industries  if 
necessary,  cease  work  whenever  a  strike  or  lockout  is  on  in  any 
department  thereof,  thus  making  an  injury  to  one  an  injury 
to  all. 

Instead  of  the  conservative  motto,  “A  fair  day’s  wage  for 
a  fair  day’s  work,”  we  must  inscribe  on  our  banner  the  revolu¬ 
tionary  watchword,  “Abolition  of  the  wage  system.” 

It  is  the  historic  mission  of  the  working  class  to  do  away  with 
capitalism.  The  army  of  production  must  be  organized,  not 
only  for  the  everyday  struggle  with  capitalists,  but  also  to  carry 
on  production  when  capitalism  shall  have  been  overthrown. 
By  organizing  industrially  we  are  forming  the  structure  of  the 
new  society  within  the  shell  of  the  old. 


234 


THE  HOBO 


The  hobo,  dissatisfied  with  things  as  they  are,  has 
no  time  to  wait  for  the  slow-moving  processes  of 
evolution.  The  preamble  appeals  to  him  because 
it  is  anti-evolutionary;  it  preaches  the  gospel  of 
struggle  and  revolt.  It  is  opposed  to  compromise 
and  reconciliation,  and  affirms  that  the  fight  must 
go  on  as  long  as  there  is  an  employing  class.  No 
man,  down-and-out,  can  hear  this  doctrine  without 
a  thrill.  The  declaration  that  no  quarter  shall  be 
given  to  the  capitalist  is  music  to  his  ears. 

Every  member  of  the  I.W.W.  is  expected  to  be  an 
agitator.  Wherever  he  goes  it  is  the  mission  of  the 
“ wobbly”  to  sow  seeds  of  discontent  and  to  harass 
the  employer.  Certain  members  go  from  job  to  job 
as  “  investigators.  ”  They  usually  remain  long 
enough  to  start  a  disturbance  among  the  regular 
employees,  and  to  get  discharged.  Agitators  regard 
a  long  list  of  dismissals  as  evidence  of  their  success. 

Official  agitators  make  no  effort  at  organizing. 
They  merely  “fan  the  flames  of  discontent”  and  pass 
on.  They  are  followed  by  the  pioneer  organizer,  an 
aggressive  individual  who  starts  the  work  of  forming 
a  local.  He  is  of  the  militant  type  and  often  gets 
no  farther  than  to  arouse  the  men  to  the  need  of 
organization.  Sooner  or  later  he  also  gets  dis¬ 
charged,  which  is  to  him  evidence  that  he  has  “put 
it  over.” 

In  the  third  stage  of  the  offensive  comes  the  real 
organizer.  He  follows  the  militants  and  reaps  what 
they  have  sown.  He  works  coolly  and  quietly  in 
organizing  the  workers.  He  persuades  and  argues, 
but  not  in  the  open.  The  employer  only  learns  of 
his  presence  when  he  has  won  over  the  men  and  is 
ready  to  make  a  demand. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


235 


Chicago’s  attitude  to  i.w.w. 

The  I.W.W.  is  little  understood  by  society  in 
general.  The  public  believes  that  it  is  an  organiza¬ 
tion  of  “tramps  who  won’t  work/’  and  that  the 
initials  stand  for  “I  Won’t  Work,”  or  “I  Want 
Whiskey.”  It  is  true  that  many  “wobblies”  do 
want  whiskey  and  many  do  not  want  work,  but  the 
organization  is  neither  pro-whiskey  nor  anti-work. 
During  the  war  the  opposition  to  the  organization 
was  intense,  and  Chicago  was  a  center  of  arrests  and 
prosecutions.  At  present,  however,  the  I.W.W.  in 
Chicago  enjoys  a  freedom  for  its  activities  not  found 
in  many  other  cities. 

There  are  two  reasons  for  this  tolerant  attitude. 
In  the  first  place,  West  Madison  Street,  where  the 
I.W.W.  is  most  active,  is  virtually  isolated  from 
other  parts  of  the  city.  It  is  hemmed  in  on  the 
north  and  south  by  factories,  and  on  the  east  by  the 
river.  Then,  too,  Chicago  is  situated  far  from  the 
battle  grounds  of  the  organization.  The  “wobblies” 
wage  a  yearly  war,  but  it  is  with  the  farmers  in  the 
harvest  belt,  the  lumber  barons  of  the  northwest,  the 
contractors,  the  mine  operators;  but  all  these  are 
remote  from  Chicago.  If  Chicago  serves  any  part 
in  this  warfare  it  is  the  role  of  a  winter  training  camp 
where  the  tactics  of  the  summer  campaign  are  worked 
out. 

INTERNATIONAL  BROTHERHOOD  WELFARE 

ASSOCIATION 

Next  in  importance  to  the  I.W.W.  is  the  hobo 
organization  known  as  the  International  Brother¬ 
hood  Welfare  Association,  or  the  I.B.W.A.  Like 
the  I.W.W.  it  started  in  1905,  but  its  membership 


236 


THE  HOBO 


at  no  time  has  exceeded  5,000.  The  I.B.W.A., 
like  the  I.W.W.,  looks  forward  to  a  new  social  order, 
a  society  in  which  there  will  be  no  classes.  But  where 
the  I.W.W.  proposes  to  use  force  and  direct  action  or 
industrial  organization  to  accomplish  its  purposes, 
the  I.B.W.A.  would  use  education.  The  I.B.W.A. 
stresses  welfare  work,  brotherhood,  and  co-operation 
among  the  hobos.  It  aims  to  organize  and  educate 
the  unorganized  and  uneducated  homeless  and  mi¬ 
gratory  workers. 

The  I.B.W.A.  is  largely  the  creation  of  James 
Eads  How,  a  member  of  a  wealthy  St.  Louis  family, 
How,  dissatisfied  with  the  ease  and  comfort  of  a  rich 
man’s  life,  left  home  and  drifted  into  the  group  of 
hobos  and  tramps.  Becoming  interested  in  their 
problems,  he  set  to  work  to  better  their  condition. 
He  conceived  the  idea  of  a  great  international  hobo 
organization  and  converted  several  hobo  “soap¬ 
boxers”  to  his  cause.  The  program  of  the  I.B.W.A. 
is  set  forth  in  Article  III  of  the  constitution: 

A.  To  bring  together  the  unorganized  workers. 

B.  To  co-operate  with  persons  and  organizations  who  desire 
to  better  social  conditions. 

C.  To  utilize  unused  land  and  machinery  in  order  to  provide 
work  for  the  unemployed. 

D.  To  furnish  medical,  legal  and  other  aid  to  its  members. 

E.  To  organize  the  unorganized  and  assist  them  in  obtain¬ 
ing  work  at  remunerative  wages  and  transportation  when  re¬ 
quired. 

F.  To  educate  the  public  mind  to  the  right  of  collective 
ownership  in  production  and  distribution. 

G.  To  bring  about  the  scientific,  industrial,  intellectual, 
moral  and  spiritual  development  of  the  masses. 

Another  section  of  the  constitution  states  that 
the  organization  aims  to  “unite  the  migratory 


JAMES  EADS  HOW 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


237 


workers,  the  Disemployed  and  the  unorganized 
workers  of  both  sexes  for  mutual  betterment  and 
development,  with  the  final  object  of  abolishing 
poverty  and  introducing  a  classless  society.” 

“hobo  college” 

The  most  important  of  the  auxiliary  institutions 
of  the  I.B. W. A.  is  the  “  Hobo  College.”  This  unique 
institution  is  How’s  idea.  How,  as  a  strong  believer 
in  progress  through  education,  desires  to  bring  to  the 
hobo  worker  the  rudiments  of  the  natural  and  social 
sciences.  The  “Hobo  College”  affords  the  migrant 
an  opportunity  to  discuss  topics  of  practical  and 
vital  interest  to  him,  and  to  attend  lectures  by 
professors,  preachers,  and  free-lance  intellectuals. 

The  “Hobo  College”  in  Chicago1  has  received 
considerable  newspaper  publicity.  Like  all  the  hobo 
colleges,  the  Chicago  branch  only  operates  in  winter. 
During  the  summer  most  of  the  “students”  are  out 
of  town  at  work  on  different  migratory  occupations. 

HOLDING  COMMITTEE 

How’s  income,  which  he  inherited,  is  at  the  disposal 
of  the  hobos,  but  it  is  “fed  out”  by  degrees,  according 
to  the  terms  of  the  will.  As  the  money  comes  into 
How’s  hands  it  is  distributed  and  apportioned  by 
the  Holding  Committee,  which  is  composed  of  a 
member  of  the  How  family,  a  member  of  the  “Hobo 
College,”  a  member  of  the  Junior  League  (a  non- 

1  The  Chicago  branch  of  the  “Hobo  College”  is  located  at  present  (1922-23) 
at  913  West  Washington  Boulevard.  It  has  taken  the  name  temporarily  of 
“Brotherhood  College,”  because  the  owners  of  the  property  would  not  rent  the 
hall  so  long  as  the  word  “hobo”  was  connected  with  the  movement.  The 
change  was  made  rather  reluctantly.  The  second  and  third  floors  are  in  use; 
the  second  floor  for  reading-room  and  kitchen,  the  third  floor  is  a  lecture-hall. 


238 


THE  HOBO 


functioning  organization  for  boy  tramps),  and  the 
acting  secretary  and  all  previous  secretaries  of  the 
I.B.W.A.  Most  of  this  money  goes  to  the  support 
of  the  various  organizations  of  the  I.B.W.A.,  includ¬ 
ing  the  Hobo  News. 

The  Holding  Committee  also  may  contribute  at 
times  to  the  purchase  of  halls  and  other  property, 
to  transport  delegates  to  and  from  conventions,  or 
rather  to  pay  their  fare  back  after  they  have  “beaten 
their  way”  to  the  meeting,  and  to  promote  propa¬ 
ganda.  A  plan  is  now  on  foot  to  maintain  a  lobby 
at  Washington  to  support  legislation  in  behalf  of  the 
hobo.  One  proposal  is  a  federal  labor  exchange. 
The  Holding  Committee  may  and  often  does  contrib¬ 
ute  to  other  causes. 

CO-OPERATIVE  “FLOPS” 

One  of  How's  ambitions  is  to  establish  hobo 
stopping  places  in  all  the  principal  cities  of  the 
country.  Already  he  has  opened  “Hotels  de  Bum” 
in  more  than  twenty  cities.  Some  of  them  are 
owned  by  the  I.B.W.A.,  but  most  of  them  only 
rented  for  the  winter  months.  The  “hotel”  in 
Cincinnati  is  typical.  It  is  a  two-story  frame 
building,  located  in  the  Hobohemian  section  of  the 
city.  The  second  floor,  designed  for  “flopping,”  is 
equipped  with  about  forty  cots.  The  first  floor  is 
divided  into  a  loafing-  or  reading-room  and  a  kitchen. 
In  the  kitchen  there  are  a  gas  range  and  enough 
pots  and  kettles  to  “boil  up”  clothes  or  cook  a  “mulli¬ 
gan.”  At  the  rear  of  the  building  is  a  small  wood 
yard  where  ties  and  other  wood  are  cut  for  the  heater. 
The  management  of  these  hotels  is  left  to  the  men 
who  select  a  house  committee  from  their  number. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


239 


The  committee  looks  after  the  building  and  insists 
that  the  men  keep  the  place  clean.  A  small  tax  is 
imposed  now  and  then  to  meet  current  expenses  and 
to  pay  one  man  a  small  fee  for  looking  after  the 
accounts.  The  ordinary  “mission  stiff”  cannot  sur¬ 
vive  long  in  an  I.B.W.A.  hotel.  He  usually  leaves 
when  asked  to  contribute  his  share  toward  the  up¬ 
keep.  But  a  man  without  money  is  welcome,  if 
he  does  his  part.  Some  of  these  hotels  pay  their 
way.  Most  of  them,  however,  never  meet  expenses, 
but  the  deficit  generally  is  made  good  by  How. 

ROLE  PLAYED  BY  HOW 

Whatever  the  future  of  the  I.B.W.A.,  at  present 
it  is  almost  a  one-man  organization.  Regardless  of 
the  ideals  How  entertains  about  democracy,  he 
really  controls  the  I.B.W.A.  He  does  all  this  because 
he  holds  the  purse.  The  I.B.W.A., with  all  its  auxilia¬ 
ries,  are  dependent  in  the  last  analysis  upon  the  funds 
of  Dr.  How.  None  of  these  institutions  is  self- 
supporting.  The  membership  fees  are  not  sufficient 
in  many  cases  to  cover  the  running  expenses.  The 
Chicago  branch  of  the  “Hobo  College,”  for  instance, 
has  been  one  of  the  most  active  in  the  country,  but 
it  has  never  paid  its  way.  How  does  not  take  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  fact  that  his  money  maintains  the  institu¬ 
tion.  He  does  not  have  as  much  to  say  about  the 
disposition  of  funds  as  certain  other  members  of  the 
Holding  Committee,  but  his  right  to  impose  his  will 
upon  the  organization  is  ever  present  with  the 
leaders. 

How  has  been  persuaded  at  times  to  withhold 
funds|from  certain  locals  thought  to  be  radical.  He 
fears  the  I.W.W.  who  sometimes  crowd  into  a  local 


240 


THE  HOBO 


group  and  outvote  the  non-I.W.W.  In  such  cases, 
How’s  money  is  used  to  spread  their  propaganda. 
The  initiation  fee  of  the  I.B.W.A.  is  so  small  (ten  cents 
and  ten  cents  a  month  dues)  that  a  large  number  of 
men  may  be  enrolled  for  a  few  dollars.  When  the 
I.W.W.  recently  lost  one  of  their  halls  in  Chicago, 
they  tried  to  work  their  way  into  the  I.B.W.A.,  but 
the  plot  was  found  out  and  the  books  for  the  time 
being  were  closed.  When  How  cuts  off  the  rent 
allowance  to  a  local  it  soon  closes  its  doors. 

The  fact  that  the  I.B.W.A.  is  virtually  How’s 
organization  has  had  interesting  effects  on  the 
behavior  of  the  members.  Certain  officials  compete 
with  one  another  to  get  into  his  good  graces.  Others 
take  a  stand  in  bitter  opposition  to  him.  There  is 
always  jealousy  between  those  “who  sit  on  the  right 
hand  and  those  who  sit  on  the  left  hand.”  Individu¬ 
als  in  the  various  locals  with  a  grievance  write  di¬ 
rectly  to  Flow.  Complaints  go  to  him  more  often 
than  to  general  headquarters. 

MIGRATORY  WORKERS’  UNION 

The  Migratory  Workers’  Union,  or  the  M.W.U., 
composed  wholly  of  hobos,  was  organized  within  the 
I.B.W.A.  in  1918.  Some  of  the  leaders  of  the 
I.B.W.A.  felt  that  the  older  organization  was  neglect¬ 
ing  the  interests  of  the  migratory  worker.  They 
charged  that  it  was  too  much  concerned  with  welfare 
work  and  too  little  with  the  organization  of  the 
workers.  They  converted  How  to  the  idea  of  a 
migratory  workers’  union  and  he  contributed  to  its 
establishment. 

The  originators  of  the  M.W.U.  had  other  ends  in 
mind.  They  wanted  to  organize  a  powerful  group 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


241 


of  workers  within  the  I.B.W.A.  that  would  be  able 
to  dominate  the  conventions  and  bring  pressure  to 
bear  on  How.  They  hoped  that  the  M.W.U.  would 
grow  to  such  proportions  that  How  would  fear  it, 
and  that  he  would  not  dare  to  use  it  as  a  “play¬ 
thing.”  Secondly,  the  M.W.U.  was  a  scheme  to 
get  funds  independently  of  the  How  allowance. 
Thirdly,  the  originators  planned  to  organize  the 
workers  along  industrial  lines  more  effectively  than 
had  the  I.W.W.,  which  at  the  time  was  unpopular 
on  account  of  its  opposition  to  the  war.  Fourthly, 
the  M.W.U.,  starting  with  a  “clean  slate”  and  a  less 
radical  program  than  the  I.W.W.,  might  attract  the 
more  moderate  of  its  members  who  had  lost  faith  in 
the  revolutionary  movement.  The  thought  of  win¬ 
ning  over  the  lukewarm  members  of  the  I.W.W.  was 
probably  the  argument  that  appealed  to  How. 

The  “Aims  and  Objects”  of  the  organization  con¬ 
tain  a  decidedly  less  radical  program  than  the 
preamble  to  the  I.W.W.  constitution. 

1.  A  national  agitation  against  the  unconstitutional  laws  as 
they  affect  the  migratory  worker. 

2.  Federal  inspection  of  all  construction  camps  by  the  United 
States  Public  Health  Service. 

3.  To  work  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  the  chain-gang  system 
and  all  prison  contract  labor. 

4.  Free  transportation  to  and  from  the  jobs  for  all  migratory 
workers. 

5.  The  abolition  of  privately  owned  employment  agencies. 

6.  A  shorter  work  day. 

The  M.W.U.  has  not  been  active  in  Chicago, 
though  one  of  its  officers  has  always  been  a  Chicago 
man.  :  It  Fas  been  most  active  in  Ohio  and  Indiana 
but  is  even  dying  there. 


242 


THE  HOBO 


UNITED  BROTHERHOOD  OF  AMERICAN  LABORERS 

Michael  C.  Walsh  is  the  general  secretary- 
treasurer  and  the  chief  promoter  of  the  United 
Brotherhood  of  American  Laborers.  Walsh,  an  old 
organizer  for  the  I.W.W.,  is  not  in  harmony  with  the 
“wobblies”  at  present.  Although  at  one  time  the 
president  of  the  “Hobo  College/’  he  has  also  with¬ 
drawn  from  that  institution. 

The  aim  of  the  Brotherhood  is  to  unite  all  migra¬ 
tory  and  even  non-migratory  workers  with  the  slogan, 
“What  is  the  concern  of  one  is  the  concern  of  all.” 
Its  program  promises  reading-rooms,  picture  shows, 
lectures,  but  the  chief  attraction  is  an  accident  and 
life  insurance  policy  which  every  member  takes  out. 

Members  of  the  M.W.U.  and  the  I.B.W.A.  accuse 
Walsh  of  drawing  up  an  impractical  program  for 
economic  and  legislative  reform,  and  charge  that  the 
“aims”  of  the  Brotherhood  were  borrowed  from  their 
organizations  and  only  slightly  modified. 

BENEVOLENT  AND  PROTECTIVE  ORDER 
OF  RAMBLERS 

The  Benevolent  and  Protective  Order  of  Ramblers 
is  supposed  to  be  a  semi-secret  organization  of  the 
floating  fraternity,  but  its  membership  is  composed 
of  a  small  number  of  Chicago’s  “home  guards.” 
It  was  organized  by  John  X.  Kelly  and  has  no  bene¬ 
fits  nor  program  except  that  the  members  agree  to 
help  one  another  when  in  trouble.  It  holds  meetings 
(for  members  only)  now  and  then,  but  it  does  not 
aim  to  deal  with  any  economic  or  social  problems. 
The  “Ramblers”  endeavors  to  add  a  human  touch 
to  the  migrant’s  life.  It  is,  in  short,  a  hobo  good- 
fellowship  club  that  meets  where  and  when  it  is  con- 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


243 


venient  to  drink  the  “milk  o’  human  kindness”  and 
to  sing  “Hail!  Hail!  You  Ought  to  Be  a  Rambler.” 

HOBO  CO-OPERATIVE  MOVEMENTS 

Dissatisfied  with  things  as  they  are,  the  hobo 
experiments  now  and  again  with  co-operative  pro¬ 
jects.  Most  of  these  are  attempts  to  do  on  a  small 
scale  what  the  dreamers  hope  to  accomplish  in  the 
future  on  a  larger,  a  national,  or  an  international 
scale.  That  co-operative  organizations  failed  is  no 
discredit  to  the  leaders  nor  any  conclusive  proof 
against  the  value  of  co-operative  movements  as  a 
motive  in  economic  life.  The  failure  is  to  be  ex¬ 
plained  at  least  in  part  by  the  egocentricity  and 
individualism  or  the  irresponsibility  of  the  migra¬ 
tory  workers. 

Of  the  following  five  interesting  cases  of  co¬ 
operative  projects  among  migratory  workers,  only 
one  took  place  in  Chicago.  The  story  of  all  of  these 
attempts  has,  however,  been  written  by  the  prime 
mover  of  them,  John  X.  Kelly.  Sooner  or  later  all 
hobo  co-operative  experiments  end  the  same  way. 
They  fail  because  of  suspicion  and  lack  of  harmony. 

61.  My  first  attempt  to  organize  a  co-operative  scheme  was 
in  1909  in  Redlands,  California.  I  knew  a  group  of  men;  some 
of  them  radical  and  all  of  them  idealists.  It  occurred  to  me 
that  they  were  the  very  types  to  make  a  communistic  plan  work. 
I  knew  of  a  tract  of  land,  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  open  for 
settlement.  Fourteen  dollars  to  file  a  claim  and  a  little  addi¬ 
tional  expense  and  labor  would  have  put  the  place  in  working 
condition. 

I  presented  my  plan  to  these  men  and  ten  of  them  approved 
the  idea.  They  had  all  been  soap-boxers  and  agitators  and  I 
1  felt  that  here  at  last  is  a  group  of  men  who  can  make  a  co¬ 
operative  organization  a  success.  Our  scheme  was  very  simple, 


244 


THE  HOBO 


everyone  was  to  bear  his  share  of  the  burden  and  to  receive  his 
share  of  the  profits.  No  matter  what  a  man  did  as  long  as  it 
was  part  of  the  work  of  running  the  farm  would  be  considered 
as  important  as  any  other  part.  The  government  of  the  place 
would  be  absolutely  democratic.  A  manager  would  be  elected 
from  the  number  and  he  would  remain  manager  for  a  certain 
term  or  as  long  as  he  gave  satisfaction.  The  land  was  to  be 
divided  up  as  follows:  each  man  was  to  have  a  five  acre  plot  as 
his  individual  property  and  the  other  hundred  and  ten  acres  of 
ground  was  to  be  worked  co-operatively. 

We  had  scarcely  got  organized  when  dissensions  arose. 
Some  were  satisfied  with  the  manager  but  others  feared  him  and 
mistrusted  him.  Some  declared  that  it  was  impossible  to 
determine  how  much  of  one  kind  of  work  was  equal  to  another 
kind  of  work.  Some  were  not  satisfied  because  they  felt  that 
they  were  going  to  be  imposed  on  and  they  would  not  join  an 
organization  in  which  there  was  no  assurance  that  they  would 
get  a  square  deal.  The  result  of  this  disputation  was  the  breakup 
of  the  movement.  Each  man  went  his  way. 

My  second  endeavor  to  promote  a  hobo  co-operative  move¬ 
ment  was  in  1917  in  St.  Louis.  It  was  in  the  winter  time  and 
there  were  many  idle  men  in  town.  I  conceived  what  I  thought 
was  the  most  modern  and  up  to  date  plan  ever  brought  into  being 
to  promote  the  interests  of  the  down-and-outs.  Knowing  that 
the  unemployed  were  being  exploited  by  semi-religious  and 
charitable  organizations  who  gave  little  in  return  for  much  work, 
I  set  about  to  solve  the  problem  in  another  way.  Dr.  James 
Eads  How  of  St.  Louis,  founder  of  the  International  Brotherhood 
Welfare  Association,  contributed  $200  to  be  used  as  follows: 
$100  to  be  spent  for  a  horse  and  wagon,  #50  for  a  gasoline  engine 
and  a  saw,  while  the  rest  was  to  be  used  to  buy  food  until  funds 
could  be  had  for  the  sale  of  wood.  It  was  a  reserve  fund  only 
to  be  used  in  case  of  emergency.  A  saloon-keeper  gave  us  the 
use  of  a  yard  in  East  St.  Louis  free  of  charge.  There  was  an 
old  store  in  connection  with  the  yard  that  could  also  be  used. 
The  place  was  in  the  heart  of  East  St.  Louis  and  accessible  to 
any  part  of  the  city.  The  American  Car  Repairing  Company 
gave  us  all  the  wood  we  cared  to  haul  away.  Eleven  policemen 
sent  in  orders  for  wood.  They  were  willing  to  pay  three  dollars 
a  load  for  this  wood  sawed  and  split  into  kindling. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


245 


The  conditions  under  which  the  men  entered  the  program 
were  similar  to  the  first  venture.  They  were  all  to  have  an  equal 
share  in  the  profits.  The  manager,  the  man  who  operated  the 
saw;  all  who  worked  in  and  around  the  wood  yard,  after  expenses 
were  deducted,  were  to  share  alike.  Everything  was  to  be 
democratic,  no  one  was  to  be  an  exploiter,  and  nobody  was  to  be 
exploited.  Everyone  agreed  and  after  I  had  remained  with  the 
project  a  day  or  so  until  it  got  under  way,  I  left  them  to  work 
out  their  own  problems. 

Within  a  week  a  committee  of  three  came  to  me  in  St.  Louis 
with  a  story  of  confusion  and  a  cry  of  being  buncoed  by  the 
manager.  They  said  that  some  of  the  members  would  not  work. 
I  sent  them  back  to  straighten  out  matters  but  conditions 
seemed  to  get  worse  in  so  far  as  finances  were  concerned,  and 
within  six  weeks  the  co-operative  wood  yard  disbanded. 

A  short  time  later  I  went  over  to  East  St.  Louis  and  took  the 
horse  and  wagon  and  other  property  of  the  wood  yard  to  St. 
Louis  where  I  had  interested  a  number  of  the  St.  Louis  Group  of 
the  I.B.W.A.  to  take  a  chance  with  the  communistic  scheme. 
Instead  of  selling  the  wood  by  the  load  this  time  they  were  going 
to  sell  small  bundles  of  kindling  coated  with  pitch.  The  men 
did  not  care  this  time  to  use  the  buzz  saw  and  engine  so  I  bought 
six  hand  saws  and  six  hatchets.  I  also  bought  a  half  barrel  of 
pitch  into  which  the  kindling  could  be  dipped.  I  succeeded  in 
raising  $32.00  as  a  jungle  fund  so  that  the  boys  could  “get  by” 
while  working  to  get  a  start. 

A  start  was  all  that  was  made  as  the  entire  group  got  intox¬ 
icated  with  “joy”  with  some  of  the  jungle  fund.  Next  morning 
the  secretary,  who  was  handling  the  fund  returned  half  of  it  with 
the  statement  that  the  co-operative  wood  yard  was  a  fizzle.  The 
man  who  had  been  elected  manager  died  while  on  this  drunk. 

Here  was  a  group  of  men  that  I  was  satisfied  would  make  a 
success  of  a  communistic  scheme  if  one  could  be  put  over,  but 
they  failed  miserably.  Some  men  in  both  these  wood  yard 
experiences  blamed  me  because  the  schemes  did  not  succeed. 

The  fourth  venture  was  in  Chicago  in  1920.  I  tried  to  put 
over  a  co-operative  lodging  house  scheme  in  the  “Slave  Market 
District”  where  thousands  of  migratory  workers  congregate 
because  of  the  cheap  living  conditions.  Instead  of  the  Scissors  Bill 


246 


THE  HOBO 


class  this  group  was  made  up  of  radicals  who  at  some  time  in  their 
unhappy  lives  had  taken  part  in  some  co-operative  experiment. 
Again  I  went  to  Dr.  How  with  my  new  idea  and  at  my  suggestion 
he  agreed  to  pay  three  months  rent  in  advance  to  help  the  move¬ 
ment  along  by  retaining  one  of  the  rooms  as  an  office  for  the 
I.B.W.A.  Five  rooms  were  rented  for  twenty-five  dollars  and 
the  I.B.W.A.  took  one  of  them  at  half  the  price  or  twelve  and  a 
half  dollars  a  month.  Later  we  rented  four  additional  rooms  at 
fifteen  dollars  making  the  total  rent  for  nine  rooms  forty  dollars 
of  which  nearly  a  third  was  paid  by  the  I.B.W.A. 

As  national  secretary  of  the  I.B.W.A.  I  was  supposed  to  have 
my  office  there,  but  I  could  do  most  of  my  work  at  home  so  I 
turned  the  room  rented  for  office  over  to  the  club  for  a  sitting 
room.  The  I.B.W.A.  contributed  fifty-eight  dollars  to  buy  fur¬ 
niture.  Some  other  furniture  was  also  bought  by  money  con¬ 
tributed  by  the  men.  The  place  was  to  be  operated  on  a 
fifty-fifty  basis.  All  the  profits  and  the  expenses  were  to  be 
equally  shared.  Everyone  agreed  and  the  organization  was  ef¬ 
fected. 

Now  the  funny  part  comes.  Quarrels  soon  arose  over  trifles, 
and  the  members  began  calling  each  other  grafters,  and  parasites. 
I  was  even  called  a  parasite  though  the  only  part  I  played  was  to 
start  the  project  and  to  encourage  it  to  operate  smoothly. 
Before  six  months  had  elapsed  the  co-operative  flat  was  a  thing 
of  the  past.  The  men  sneaked  away  all  of  the  furniture,  that 
of  the  I.B.W.A.  as  well  as  some  that  belonged  to  the  members 
of  the  group.  They  hauled  it  all  away  to  furnish  two  small  flats. 
They  also  left  an  eighteen-dollar  gas  bill  which  the  amateur 
promoter  had  to  pay. 

The  fifth  and  last  experiment  is  not  a  case  of  co-operation  but 
it  illustrates  what  might  be  expected  from  the  hobo. 

During  the  winter  of  1916  a  St.  Louis  lady,  Dr.  Innis,  con¬ 
ducted  a  free  dispensary  for  the  “bos”  who  could  not  get  hospital 
treatment.  Dr.  How  paid  the  bill  for  conducting  the  place. 
Dr.  Innis  took  a  great  interest  in  the  migratory  worker  and 
co-operated  with  us  in  working  out  a  scheme  by  which  the  hobo 
could  save  some  money  during  the  summer  to  hold  him  over  the 
winter  months.  She  agreed  to  receive  and  hold  in  trust  all  the 
money  that  any  man  would  send  to  her  and  in  the  fall  when  he 
came  to  town  turn  it  over  to  him.  We  got  out  a  lot  of  letters  and 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


247 


cards  by  which  this  correspondence  banking  could  be  carried  on 
and  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  men  agreed  that  it  was  a  good 
scheme  and  that  they  would  take  advantage  of  it. 

The  result  was  amusing.  Out  of  all  the  men  who  approved 
the  plan  only  one  sent  in  any  money.  That  one  man  sent  in  one 
dollar.  Shortly  after  Dr.  Innis  got  a  letter  from  this  man.  He 
said  he  was  “broke”  and  would  like  to  have  his  dollar  back. 

My  conclusion  is  that  it  is  impossible  to  accomplish  anything 
along  co-operative  lines  and  in  a  democratic  manner.  I  know 
the  hobo  worker  fairly  well  and  I  tried  patiently  to  put  over 
schemes  that  they  have,  for  the  most  part,  favored,  and  I  worked 
with  fair  representatives  of  the  group,  but  they  will  not  co¬ 
operate.  They  are  suspicious  and  selfish  when  it  comes  to  the 
final  test  of  their  pet  ideas.  Co-operative  schemes  may  work  but 
I  don’t  think  they  will  be  a  success  along  democratic  lines. 

FAILURE  OF  HOBO  ORGANIZATIONS 

Hobo  organizations  have  never  been  a  success 
in  this  country.  It  is  proverbial  that  conventions 
of  the  I.W.W.  and  the  I.B.W.A.  have  always  been 
veritable  battle  grounds  of  contending  interests. 
The  I.B.W.A.  has  had  four  conventions  during  the 
winter  of  1921-22  and  the  summer  of  1922  and  they 
all  failed  to  accomplish  anything  because  of  jealousies 
and  bitter  feelings.  The  convention  in  Cincinnati 
on  May  Day,  1922,  continued  in  session  for  three 
days  and  did  not  get  any  farther  than  to  argue  about 
the  power  of  the  convention  to  act  in  the  name  of 
the  I.B.W.A.  One  whole  session  was  spent  in  a 
quarrel  about  the  election  of  a  chairman. 

Between  the  M.W.U.  and  the  I.B.W.A.  there  is 
considerable  antipathy,  yet  the  M.W.U.  cannot 
stand  alone  and  will  not  co-operate  with  the  parent 
organization.  The  I.W.W.  is  against  both,  but  even 
in  the  I.W.W.  there  is  a  perpetual  clash  between  the 
migratory  workers  and  the  “home  guards.”  Active 


248 


THE  HOBO 


and  zealous  organizers  usually  find  room  for  com¬ 
plaint  against  the  office  force. 

The  hobo,  like  other  egocentric  types,  is  suspi¬ 
cious.  The  I.W.W.  at  its  inception  spent  days  argu¬ 
ing  whether  the  name  of  its  chief  officer  should  be 
that  of  president.  Some  felt  that  to  model  the 
organization  after  others  would  be  a  step  in  imitation 
that  might  lead  to  other  forms  of  imitation.  Some 
reasoned  that  most  presidents  of  organizations  they 
had  known  were  “parasites”  and  their  head  officer 
might  become  one  also  if  given  the  name.  The 
hobo's  suspicious  attitude  toward  all  organizations 
and  persons  in  power  is  not  altogether  without 
ground.  As  a  group  the  migratory  workers  usually 
get  the  “short  end”  of  every  bargain  they  drive  with 
organized  society.  Every  contractor  they  work  for 
“does”  them  for  something.  If  he  does  not  charge 
them  for  tools  they  lost  or  destroyed  he  may  charge 
them  for  rent  on  a  pair  of  boots  or  a  blanket  they  may 
have  used.  They  may  buy  a  job  from  some  private 
agency  and  later  lose  the  job  because  the  agency  and 
the  contractor  have  an  understanding  to  sell  as  many 
jobs  as  possible.  The  hobo  gets  the  opinion  that 
most  officers  in  most  organizations  are  playing  the 
game  for  what  they  can  get  out  of  it  and  he  concludes 
that  it  is  the  natural  thing  to  do. 

The  mobility  and  instability  of  the  hobo  or  tramp, 
which  is  both  cause  and  consequence  of  his  migratory 
existence,  unfits  him  for  organized  group  life.  More¬ 
over,  he  is  propertyless,  and  therefore  the  incentive 
of  fixed  ownership  and  fixed  residence  to  remain 
faithful  to  any  institution  is  gone.  While  the  man 
of  property  secures  himself  best  by  associating  with 
his  neighbor  and  remaining  in  one  locality,  the  hobo 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


249 


safeguards  himself  by  moving  away  from  every  diffi¬ 
culty.  Then,  too,  the  hobo  is  without  wife  and 
child.  His  womanless  existence  increases  his  mobil¬ 
ity  and  his  instability. 

In  pointing  out  the  repeated  and  seemingly  inevi¬ 
table  failures  of  hobo  organizations,  the  fact  must 
not  be  lost  sight  of  that  they  are  absolutely  necessary 
to  his  social  existence.  Only  in  these  social  and 
political  organizations  can  the  migratory  worker 
regain  his  lost  status.  Only  in  association  with  his 
fellows  can  he  again  hope  and  dream  of  an  ideal  world 
of  co-operation.  These  organizations  will  either 
survive  repeated  failures  or  take  new  forms,  because 
they  satisfy  this  fundamental  need  of  the  social  out¬ 
cast  for  status.  Then,  too,  in  these  groups,  his 
rebellious  attitudes  against  society  are  sublimated 
into  a  radical  idealism.  Were  these  organizations 
destroyed,  the  anti-social  grudge  of  the  individual 
would  undoubtedly  be  reflected  in  criminality. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

MISSIONS  AND  WELFARE  ORGANIZATIONS 


IN  THE  winter  of  1921-22  there  were  twenty-five 
missions  in  the  Hobohemian  areas  of  the  city. 
This  number  tends  to  expand  and  to  contract  with 
the  increase  or  the  decrease  in  number  of  men  out 
of  work.  The  number  of  missions  in  the  West 
Madison  Street  section  is  larger  than  the  number  in 
the  South  State  Street  and  North  Clark  Street 
regions  combined.  The  influence  of  the  Salvation 
Army,  which  has  outgrown  the  status  of  a  mission, 
upon  similar  organizations  is  profound.  The  names 
of  many  of  the  missions  suggest  their  origin  in  imita¬ 
tion  of  this  pioneer  body  in  religious  work  for  the 
“down-and-outs”:  Christian  Army,  Samaritan 

Army,  Saved  Army,  Volunteer  Rescue  Army.  The 
names  of  other  missions  are  as  interesting:  Bible 
Rescue  Mission,  Cathedral  Shelter,  Helping  Hand 
Mission,  Pacific  Garden  Mission,  Sunshine  Gospel 
Mission. 

The  uniforms  of  the  “armies”  that  make  up  the 
working  force  of  certain  of  the  missions  are  often  so 
nearly  alike  that  it  is  difficult  to  tell  them  apart.  A 
short  time  ago  the  Salvation  Army  brought  suit 
against  the  Saved  Army  to  prevent  it  from  using  the 
poke  bonnets,  the  blue  uniform,  the  song  “The 
War  Cry”  on  the  ground  that  they  were  so  similar 
to  those  of  the  Salvation  Army  that  the  public 
was  confused.  It  is  claimed  by  representatives  of 
the  Salvation  Army  that  individuals  contribute  to 
these  other  missions  and  “armies”  under  the  im¬ 
pression  that  the  contribution  is  for  the  Salvation 
Army. 

5°1 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


251 


TYPES  OF  MISSIONS1 

Aside  from  the  religious  work  of  the  Salvation 
Army  and  the  Volunteers  of  America,  three  types  of 
missions  are  to  be  found  in  Hobohemia:  (i)  the 
permanently  established  local  mission,  (2)  the  migra¬ 
tory  national  mission,  and  (3)  the  “wild  cat”  local 
mission. 

1)  The  permanently  established  local  mission 
either  owns  its  building  or  holds  it  on  a  long  lease. 
These  missions  are  sponsored  by  some  church  or 
by  a  board  of  directors  composed  of  business  men 
of  more  or  less  local  prominence.  Not  infrequently 
these  contributors  are  successful  converts. 

These  local  missions  dispense  charity  in  the  form 
of  food,  clothing,  and  beds  for  homeless  men.2  They 
differ,  however,  in  their  methods  of  relief  as  well  as 
in  their  policies  of  relief.  One  mission  may  care  for 
every  man  who  asks  for  aid  without  question  as  to 
his  worthiness,  another  feels  that  better  service  can 
be  done  by  helping  only  those  who  are  willing  to 
work,  or  those  who  are  incapacitated  for  manual 
labor.  Only  the  verbose  intoxicant  is  ever  ejected 
from  the  mission — all  others  may  come  and  go  as 
they  wish. 

In  the  permanently  established  mission  is  found 
the  better  type  of  mission  worker  who  is  compen¬ 
sated  by  a  definite  salary  rather  than  paid  on  a 

TIn  the  section  on  “Types  of  Missions”  and  “Permanent,  Periodic,  and 
Temporary  Converts,”  the  writer  is  indebted  to  material  furnished  by  Mr.  L. 
Guy  Brown  from  an  unpublished  study  of  “Missions  in  Chicago.” 

2  One  mission  of  this  type  on  West  Madison  Street  records  that  during  the 
year  ending  September,  1921,  56,718  homeless  men  visited  the  mission.  During 
this  time  4,016  men  knelt  at  the  altar  (were  converted).  Nearly  29,000  meals 
were  served  to  hungry  and  unemployed  men,  while  4,145  tickets  were  issued 
which  entitled  the  bearer  to  sleep  at  a  flophouse  or  cheap  rooming-house. 


252 


THE  HOBO 


commission  basis.  The  permanent  workers  consist 
of  a  superintendent  and  a  secretary  assisted  by  con¬ 
verts  who  have  made  good,  usually  old  men  who  use 
the  mission  as  a  refuge.  Still  further  help  comes 
from  students  of  the  various  religious  institutions 
in  the  city  and  from  the  friends  of  the  mission. 

i)  The  national  migratory  missions  may  have 
headquarters  in  Chicago  or  some  other  metropolitan 
center  with  branches  or  sub-missions  in  nearby 
towns  and  cities.  These  organizations  are  generally 
financed  by  solicitations.  Men  and  women  are 
employed  to  canvass  places  of  business;  to  “drum” 
on  the  streets  and  to  make  house-to-house  calls. 
This  practice  of  drumming  on  the  streets  is  known 
as  “ballyhooing.”  These  solicitors  receive,  in  most 
cases,  as  much  as  50  per  cent  of  the  amount  they 
collect,  which  greatly  lessens  the  sum  to  be  used  for 
the  homeless  men  after  the  rent  for  the  building, 
the  salaries  of  the  men  in  charge,  and  other  expenses 
have  been  deducted  from  the  remaining  50  per  cent. 

The  shifting  of  these  missions  is  proverbial.  If 
they  are  not  moving  from  city  to  city  they  are  moving 
from  one  street  to  another,  or  from  one  location  to 
another  on  the  same  street.  The  workers  are  as 
transient  as  the  institutions  themselves:  migrating 
back  and  forth  between  cities,  and  affiliating  them¬ 
selves  first  with  one  mission  and  then  with  another. 
Often  they  are  rural  folk  who,  through  urban  mission 
work,  find  expression  for  the  wishes  of  adventure  and 
recognition.  The  fascination  of  the  city  has  an 
attraction  for  the  migratory  mission  worker  as  for 
the  migratory  laborer.  They  prefer  this  life,  even 
under  adverse  conditions,  to  any  other  field  of  service. 
Others  are  veterans,  who  have  been  in  mission  work 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


253 


for  years  with  four  or  five  different  organizations  in 
as  many  cities. 

3)  The  “wild  cat”  local  mission,  more  or  less 
ephemeral  in  nature,  springs  up  during  some  crisis 
as  an  unemployment  situation.  Using  the  crisis 
as  an  excuse  for  soliciting  funds  to  aid  the  unem¬ 
ployed,  they  operate  for  awhile,  and  when  conditions 
have  been  ameliorated,  they  go  out  of  existence. 
The  workers,  enthralled  by  a  few  months  in  the  serv¬ 
ice,  then  affiliate  with  another  mission. 

MAKING  CONVERTS 

The  following  narrative  by  an  observer  in  the 
Bible  Rescue  Mission  one  Sunday  evening  early  in 
April,  1922,  describes  the  technique  of  conversion. 

62.  More  than  a  hundred  men  were  in  the  audience.  The 
night  was  cold  and  they  were  glad  to  be  inside.  Then,  too, 
there  were  rolls  and  coffee  to  be  served  after  the  meeting.  Near 
the  close  of  the  service  the  evangelist  stept  down  from  the  stand 
and  asked  if  anyone  in  the  audience  wished  to  be  prayed  for. 
Surely  out  of  an  audience  of  so  many  men,  all  sinners,  someone 
was  concerned  about  his  soul.  All  a  man  would  have  to  do  was 
to  raise  his  hand.  That  was  easy;  just  believe  with  all  your 
heart,  raise  your  hand  for  prayer.  It  was  worth  taking  a  chance 
on  anyway.  Three  hands  went  up. 

“That’s  fine!  Three  men  have  asked  to  be  remembered 
before  the  Lord.  Is  there  anyone  else  ?  Just  one  more,  let’s 
make  it  four.  Won’t  someone  else  raise  his  hand.  Yes,  there’s 
another  hand.  God  bless  you,  brother.  Now,  will  the  four 
men  who  raised  their  hands  please  stand  ?  ’’ 

This  was  more  than  they  had  bargained  for,  but  they  stood. 
All  eyes  were  on  the  four,  all  homeless  men  with  the  character¬ 
istic  beaten  look.  They  were  self-conscious  and  uncomfortable. 
One  of  the  men,  somewhat  older  than  the  others,  seemed  to  be 
stirred  by  emotion. 

“Now,”  continued  the  evangelist,  “will  the  four  brothers 
who  just  stood  up  kindly  come  forward  and  kneel  with  us  in 


254 


THE  HOBO 


prayer  ?”  There  was  a  moment  of  hesitation.  Finally,  the  old 
man  led  the  way.  One  of  the  others  followed  in  a  halting  fashion. 
A  worker  came  down  from  the  stand  and  escorted  to  the  front  the 
younger  of  the  remaining  two.  The  fourth  man  sat  down. 
Another  worker  sat  down  beside  him  and  pleaded  with  him  for 
some  time.  The  man  seemed  to  resent  it  at  first,  but  at  length 
he  yielded  and  was  led  into  the  circle.  He  had  a  sheepish  look 
as  he  slumped  to  his  knees  between  two  of  the  other  converts. 

Several  of  the  workers  began  to  labor  with  members  of  the 
audience  while  the  little  circle  kneeled  on  the  floor  and  prayed. 
No  other  converts  were  made  so  the  meeting  came  to  an  end  with 
handshakes  and  congratulations  for  the  new  converts.  Then 
the  lunch  was  passed  and  the  tension  relaxed. 

Once  outside  I  asked  a  man  who  had  been  inside  what  he 
thought  of  the  meeting.  He  laughed,  “Oh,  it’s  just  like  all  of 
them.  I  wanted  to  laugh  out  loud  when  I  saw  that  old  duck 
get  saved.  He  gets  saved  every  winter.  This  winter  he  got 
saved  twice.  He  always  manages  to  get  saved  in  missions  where 
there  is  something  to  eat.” 

Women  play  a  leading  role  in  mission  work.  The 
homeless  man,  who  remembers  his  home  and  mother, 
listens  with  respect  to  the  prayers  and  appeals  of 
the  women  workers,  and  is  stirred  by  the  singing  of 
young  girls.  A  religious  plea  by  a  woman  of  strong 
personality  will  sometimes  overwhelm  a  despondent 
and  homesick  man. 

63.  Probably  the  most  interesting  event  of  our  investigation 
was  a  Salvation  Army  revival  meeting,  held  in  a  little  auditorium 
behind  the  smoking  room.  Each  Sunday  night  at  about  8:00, 
these  services  are  held.  Eight  or  nine  girls,  one  the  leader,  and 
one  the  pianist,  make  up  the  cast  and  chorus.  When  they  are 
ready  the  invitation  is  extended  to  those  in  the  smoking  room  and 
anywhere  from  six  to  thirty  are  likely  to  go  into  the  “church.” 

The  leader  is  a  very  versatile  lady.  She  can  utter  a  fervent 
prayer,  sing  louder  than  all  the  rest  of  the  girls  together,  play  a 
tambourine  at  the  same  time,  and  make  a  stirring  appeal  to 
the  audience  that  they  “come  forward  to  Jesus  and  be  saved.” 
The  girls  join  in  the  chorus,  clapping  as  they  sing.  They  have 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


255 


all  been  saved,  and  testify  as  to  the  truth  of  the  leader’s  words. 
“Isn’t  that  true,  girls  ?”  and  they  all  nod  their  heads  in  perfect 
accord. 

The  old  songs  are  sung,  songs  with  simple  tune  and  words  as 
“He’s  the  Lily  of  the  Valley.”  Anyone  hearing  these  songs  once 
can  join  in,  and  all  are  asked  to  do  so,  but  few  respond.  Yet 
it  is  inspiring  to  see  some  forlorn  looking  bum  concentrate  on  the 
little  book  and  sing  forth  earnestly,  as  some  of  them  do.  Very 
few,  however,  wish  to  be  saved.  They  are  willing  to  attend  the 
services,  and  maybe  to  sing,  but  they  will  not  volunteer  to  join 
the  army  of  God,  and  when  personal  solicitation  is  undertaken, 
few  remain  in  the  room. 

During  warm  weather  the  missions  hold  street 
meetings.  Headed  by  the  mission  band,  the  com¬ 
pany  marches  outside  to  get  the  crowd.  A  few 
songs  are  sung,  several  testimonials  are  given,  and 
the  curbstone  audience  is  invited  to  the  hall. 

Few  mission  workers  are  able  to  gather  and 
hold  a  crowd  on  the  street.  It  is  more  difficult 
to  preach  on  account  of  the  noise  of  passing  street 
cars  and  automobiles.  The  crowd  outside  is  less 
stable  and  not  so  considerate  as  the  indoor  audience. 
Often  the  meetings  are  disturbed  by  drunken  men 
or  by  competing  mission  groups  on  the  same  street. 
A  mission  band  may  not  be  able  to  gather  any  crowd, 
even  though  hundreds  of  men  are  passing  or  loafing 
on  the  streets.  Sometimes  their  audiences  will  be 
stolen  by  soap-boxers  who  start  near  by  with  the 
“economic  arguments.” 

PERMANENT,  PERIODIC,  AND  TEMPORARY 

CONVERTS 

Every  mission  has  its  permanent,  periodic,  and 
temporary  converts;  its  “alumni.”  Some  of  these 
linger  about  the  mission  doing  odd  jobs,  others  go 


256 


THE  HOBO 


to  work  or  into  business,  only  returning  occasionally 
to  bear  testimony.  Many  of  these  have  prospered 
both  spiritually  and  materially,  and  assist  the  mission 
in  its  work.  Certain  missions  celebrate  the  “spiritual 
birthdays  ”  of  these  converts.  A  bouquet  of  flowers  is 
placed  on  the  pulpit  and  a  special  program  is  arranged 
in  honor  of  the  occasion.  The  anniversary  of  the 
conversion  of  a  permanent  convert  is  a  time  of 
rejoicing.  The  “twice-born  man”  bears  his  testi¬ 
mony  to  the  saving  power  of  the  gospel  that  snatches 
“a  brand  from  the  burning,”  and  asks  the  prayers  of 
the  saints  that  he  may  continue  “faithful  until  the 
end.”  Each  of  the  “saved”  who  are  present  wears 
a  flower  in  the  lapel  of  his  coat  and  takes  advantage  of 
the  occasion  to  add  his  testimony. 

The  following  typical  cases  of  converts  were 
secured  through  hearing  the  testimony  of  men  in  the 
missions  and  by  later  interviews  with  each  of  the 
converts.  The  information  given  was  also  verified 
by  mission  workers  who  knew  the  men. 

64.  H.  M.,  in  his  own  words,  was  once  “one  of  the  worst 
jail  birds  and  boozers”  in  this  part  of  the  country.  For  years, 
he  declares,  he  was  never  sober.  His  arrival  home  usually 
meant  the  beating  of  his  wife.  At  the  end  of  every  month  he 
was  in  debt  to  the  saloon  keeper.  He  gravitated  from  one  house 
to  another  unable  to  pay  his  rent,  until  his  family  was  living  in 
an  old  delapidated  shack.  His  religious  transformation  changed 
the  whole  situation.  He  is  now  in  business  for  himself.  He  is 
considered  one  of  the  most  competent  and  reliable  in  his  field. 
He  and  his  wife  work  at  the  mission  and  are  among  its  largest 
financial  contributors. 

65.  About  twenty  years  ago  T.  S.,  a  typical  “down-and-out,” 
wandered  into  a  Chicago  mission.  He  had  deserted  his  family 
in  an  eastern  state  and  started  on  the  bum.  Exposure  and 
“booze”  had  almost  completely  enervated  him.  He  was  dirty, 
unshaved,  and  in  rags.  His  visit  to  the  mission  led  to  his 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


257 


conversion  and  subsequently  to  reconciliation  with  his  wife  and 
three  children.  He  is  now  superintendent  of  a  business  concern 
in  the  city. 

66.  P.  W.,  a  man  of  foreign  birth  and  a  graduate  from  one 
of  the  leading  universities  of  his  native  country,  became  addicted 
to  drink,  deserted  his  wife,  and  leaving  her  in  dire  need  came  to 
this  country.  He  became  so  low  a  bum  that  he  was  taking  his 
food  from  garbage  cans  in  the  alleys  of  Chicago,  spending  every 
cent  he  could  get  for  “booze.”  He  was  so  debilitated  from 
alcohol,  exposure,  and  lack  of  nourishment  when  he  came  to  the 
mission  that  he  was  hardly  able  to  walk.  He  was  converted  and 
restored  to  health.  His  wife  later  joined  him.  He  became 
nationally  known  as  a  worker  in  missions. 

67.  Some  years  ago  a  young  lad  left  his  home  in  Germany 
and  came  to  the  United  States.  His  associates  here  were  persons 
who  spent  their  leisure  time  in  dissipation.  One  morning  he 
awoke  after  a  drunken  night  and  decided  to  go  down  on  West 
Madison  Street  with  the  bums  where  he  thought  he  belonged. 
He  despaired  of  life.  He  wandered  into  one  of  the  missions  to 
get  warm  and  was  converted.  Although  he  had  a  meager  educa¬ 
tion  he  is  now  studying  in  one  of  the  religious  institutions  of 
the  city  with  the  expressed  purpose  of  doing  religious  work. 

68.  P.  D.  came  into  the  mission  drunk  one  night  and  was 
converted.  Several  times  previous  to  this  he  had  been  thrown 
out  for  disturbing  the  meeting.  According  to  his  own  statement 
he  entered  the  mission  one  time  and  was  “saved  and  stayed 
saved.”  He  is  now  general  labor  foreman  for  a  large  construction 
company. 

Of  course  there  are  temporary  converts  who  be¬ 
come  victims  of  their  old  environment.  For  awhile 
they  go  straight,  but  eventually  they  yield  to  “the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.”  Some  periodic  con¬ 
verts  kneel  before  the  altar  every  year  and  each  time 
go  out  with  renewed  determination  to  avoid  sin,  but 
they  often  succumb  the  first  time  they  are  subjected 
to  temptation.  The  mission  workers  expect  this 
periodicity  of  conversion  with  some  of  these  men  just 
as  they  expect  the  winter. 


258 


THE  HOBO 


“ Backsliders”  are  usually  well  meaning  men  but 
weak.  Any  convert  who  remains  on  the  “stem” 
is  likely  to  become  a  “backslider.”  The  emotional 
nature  of  many  of  these  men  may  induce  a  mood  of 
sincere  repentance,  but  it  is  difficult  to  keep  the 
resolution  to  reform. 

69.  L.  S.  is  a  youth  of  the  city.  He  is  twenty-three.  His 
parents  are  strict  German  Lutherans  and  he  spent  several  years 
in  a  Lutheran  parochial  school.  He  left  home  over  a  month 
ago  (April,  1922)  because  of  some  trouble  he  had  with  his  folks. 

Shortly  after  he  entered  the  -  -  Mission  on  Madison 

Street  where  he  “got  religion”  but  in  a  week  he  “back  slid.” 
He  was  melted  into  consenting  and  was  rushed  to  the  front  and 
“saved”  before  he  knew  what  had  happened.  After  the  men 
on  the  outside  laughed  at  him  he  “weakened.”  Now  he  feels 
that  there  is  “nothing  to  religion  anyway,”  though  he  admits 
that  the  mission  worker  at  one  time  kept  him  out  of  jail. 

MISSION  BREAD  LINES 

During  the  winter  of  1921-22,  twelve  of  the 
missions  in  Chicago,  maintained  “bread  lines,”  that 
is,  dispensed  food,  as  coffee  and  doughnuts,  or  a 
bowl  of  soup  and  vegetables.  The  term  “bread 
line,”  used  figuratively  for  “free  lunch,”  originally 
described  the  long  lines  of  men  during  years  of  want 
and  unemployment  waiting  outside  relief  stations 
for  bread  and  soup. 

Missions  without  “bread  lines”  claim  that  the 
food  is  given  as  a  bait  to  get  conversions.  They 
hold  that  “meal  ticket”  converts  lose  their  religion 
as  soon  as  they  become  economically  self-sustaining. 
The  unregenerate  homeless  man  looks  down  upon 
the  regular  attendants  at  the  mission,  and  accuses 
them  of  getting  converted  for  “pie  card”  reasons. 
He  calls  them  “mission  stiffs,”  a  term  as  uncompli¬ 
mentary  as  for  an  Indian  to  be  called  a  “squaw  man.” 


A  FREE  LUNCH  AT  A  MISSION 


By  permission  of  the  Helping  Hand  Mission 


A  WINTER’S  NIGHT  IN  A  MISSION 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


259 


WELFARE  ORGANIZATIONS 

The  mission  is  not  the  only  institution  to  which 
the  homeless  man  turns.  Social-service  agencies, 
public  and  private,  many  of  which  are  organized 
primarily  for  family  rehabilitation,  have  given  assist¬ 
ance  to  the  homeless  man. 

The  United  Charities,  although  engaged  chiefly  in 
work  with  families,  has  a  homeless-men  division. 
During  the  year  ending  September  30,  1922,  1,026 
non-family  men  received  assistance.  Of  these,  629 
were  given  material  or  personal  service,  and  397  were 
referred  to  other  organizations.  The  Jewish  Social 
Service  Bureau  also  maintains  a  homeless  men’s 
department  which,  in  the  year  1921,  gave  personal 
and  material  aid  to  1,333  men.  During  1922,  the 
number  of  men  helped  fell  to  less  than  half  this 
number,  largely  as  a  result  of  the  improved  industrial 
situation.  The  Bureau  works  in  close  association 
with  two  Jewish  sheltering-homes,  which  together 
house  about  70  men.  Homeless  men  who  apply  for 
assistance  are  cared  for  here  until  their  cases  are  care¬ 
fully  investigated.  The  Central  Bureau  of  (Cath¬ 
olic)  Charities,  in  conjunction  with  the  Mission  of 
the  Holy  Cross,  provides  shelter  and  food  for  desti¬ 
tute  men,  and  aids  them  to  become  self-supporting. 

The  Chicago  Urban  League,  organized  to  promote 
co-ordination  and  co-operation  among  existing 
agencies  for  the  welfare  of  Negroes,  maintains  an 
employment  bureau  for  men  out  of  work.  During 
the  winters  of  1920-21  and  1921-22,  when  thousands 
of  men1  were  without  house  accommodations,  the 
League  took  the  lead  in  co-operating  with  churches 

1  The  officials  of  the  League  estimate  that  there  were  7,000  homeless  men 
among  the  Negroes  in  the  winter  of  1921-22. 


260 


THE  HOBO 


and  other  organizations  to  secure  temporary  housing 
quarters. 

The  hotels  for  homeless  men  maintained  by  the 
Salvation  Army  and  by  the  Christian  Industrial 
League  have  already  been  described.1  In  addition, 
both  organizations  maintain  industrial  homes  where 
men  are  given  temporary  work  and  are  helped  to 
become  self-supporting. 

The  American  Legion  has  been  active  in  behalf  of 
unemployed  ex-service  men,  many  of  whom  are  also 
homeless  men.  Its  work  has  consisted  chiefly  in 
getting  jobs  for  the  unemployed,  and  in  this  it  has 
had  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  newspapers.  The 
Legion  Hall  was  turned  over  to  homeless  veterans 
for  sleeping  quarters  during  the  winter  of  1921-22. 

The  Chicago  Municipal  Lodging  House  was  first 
opened  on  December  21,  1901.  It  provided  free 
temporary  shelter  and  food  for  destitute,  homeless 
men.  At  first  it  was  operated  under  the  Depart¬ 
ment  of  Police,  but  was  transferred  on  January  1, 
1908,  to  the  Department  of  Health,  and  later,  on 
April  17,  1917,  transferred  to  the  Department  of 
Public  Welfare.  In  its  early  history,  the  Municipal 
Lodging  House  was  fortunate  in  having  as  its  super¬ 
intendent  men  like  Raymond  Robins,  James  Mullen- 
bach,  and  Charles  B.  Ball,  who  set  high  standards  for 
its  administration.2  The  Municipal  Lodging  House 
met  the  severe  test  of  the  unemployment  years  of 
1908  and  1914  by  showing  how  its  organization  could 
expand  to  meet  extraordinary  situations.  For  ex¬ 
ample,  while  only  23,642  lodgings  were  given  in  1907, 

1  See  pp.  27-28. 

2  See  Raymond  Robins,  “What  Constitutes  a  Model  Municipal  Lodging 
House,”  Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction  (1904), 
155-66. 


HOW  HE  MEETS  HIS  PROBLEM 


261 


the  number  rose  to  105,564  in  1908;  and  the  78,392 
lodgings  given  in  1913  rose  to  452,361  in  1914.  The 
Municipal  Lodging  House  closed  in  1918-19  because 
of  lack  of  applicants  during  wartime  prosperity,  but 
it  did  not  reopen  during  the  hard  winters  of  1920-21 
and  1921-22.  Many  destitute  men,  who  would 
otherwise  have  been  inmates  of  the  Municipal  Lodg¬ 
ing  House  with  the  medical  attention,  sanitary  sleep¬ 
ing  quarters,  and  other  assistance  for  rehabilitation 
which  it  offered,  became  instead  “regular  feeders” 
at  the  “bread  lines”  and  permanent  patrons  of 
Hogan's  “flop.”  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that 
the  absence  of  municipal  provision  made  for  an 
increase  of  promiscuous  begging  and  injudicious 
almsgivings. 

Many  other  institutions  and  agencies  regularly  or 
sporadically  extend  assistance  to  the  homeless  man. 
Yet,  in  perhaps  no  other  field  of  social  work  is  there 
more  overlapping  and  duplication  of  effort,  or  so 
low  standards  of  service.  For  example,  the  missions 
and  some  of  the  churches,  working  independently  of 
one  another,  boast  that  they  feed  and  clothe  the 
needy,  but  they  make  little  or  no  effort  to  distinguish 
between  those  who  do  and  those  who  do  not  deserve 
assistance.  Consequently,  the  missions  lay  them¬ 
selves  open  to  exploitation  by  the  homeless  man.  A 
constructive  program  for  rehabilitation  demands  the 
co-ordination  of  the  efforts  of  all  agencies  now 
engaged  in  serving  his  needs. 

THE  HOMELESS  MAN  AND  RELIGION 

The  missions,  and  for  that  matter,  the  welfare 
agencies  are  unpopular  with  the  habitues  of  Hobo- 
hemia.  The  hobo,  in  his  songs  and  in  conversation, 


262 


THE  HOBO 


shows  unmistakably  his  aversion  to  all  efforts  to 
remake  his  character  or  to  reshape  his  destiny.  This 
feeling  of  antipathy  is  naturally  strongest  with  the 
adherents  of  the  I.W.W.  who  come  in  competition 
and  conflict  with  the  mission  worker. 

With  full  recognition  of  the  cynical  reaction  of 
the  average  hobo  to  the  mission,  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  thousands  of  homeless  men  are  converted  every 
winter,  and  that  a  certain  proportion  of  these,  how 
large  no  one  knows,  lead  permanently  changed  lives. 
The  mission  touches  the  inner  life  of  these  men  in  a 
way  that  no  social  agency  or  organization  has  ever 
done,  or  perhaps  can  do. 

Even  the  homeless  man  has  aspirations  above  the 
satisfaction  of  his  physical  wants;  he  desires  to  live 
in  a  larger,  more  complete  sense.  The  I.W.W.,  with 
its  radical  program  of  changing  “things  as  they  are,” 
appeals  to  the  restless  and  rebellious  spirit  of  youth. 
But  the  broken  man,  or  the  old  man  who  has  given 
up  hope,  finds  comfort  and  peace  in  adapting  himself 
to  “things  as  they  are.”  Religion  to  him  is  just  this 
change  of  attitude,  “making  oneself  right  with  God.” 
While  the  young  man  is  confident  that  he  can  right 
what  is  wrong  in  this  world,  the  old  man  looks  to  the 
next  world  to  compensate  for  the  inequalities  and 
injustice  of  present  existence. 


APPENDIXES 


\ 


APPENDIX  A 

SUMMARY  OF  FINDINGS 
AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

THIS  study  has  pictured  the  life  and  the  problems 
of  the  group  of  homeless  migratory  and  casual 
workers  in  Chicago.  It  now  remains  to  sum  up 
the  findings  of  the  investigation  and  to  outline  the 
recommendations  which  seem  to  flow  from  the  facts.1 

FINDINGS 

i.  The  homeless  casual  and  migratory  workers,  while  found  in 
all  parts  of  the  city,  are  segregated  in  great  numbers  in  four 
distinct  areas:  West  Madison  Street,  Lower  South  State 
Street  (near  the  Loop),  North  Clark  Street,  and  Upper 
State  Street  (the  Negro  section). 
i.  The  number  of  homeless  men  in  these  areas  fluctuates  greatly 
with  the  seasons  and  with  conditions  of  employment. 

3.  The  concentration  of  casual  and  migratory  workers  in  this 
city  is  the  natural  result  of  two  factors:  (a)  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  Chicago  as  a  great  industrial  community  with  diver¬ 
sified  enterprises  requiring  a  variety  of  unskilled  as  well  as 
skilled  laborers,  and  (b)  the  position  of  Chicago  as  a  center 
of  transportation,  of  commerce  and  of  employment  for  the 
states  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

4.  The  homeless  men  in  Chicago  fall  into  five  groups:  ( a )  the 
seasonal  laborer,  (b)  the  migratory,  casual  laborer,  the  hobo, 
(c)  the  migratory  non-worker,  the  tramp,  (d)  the  non- 
migratory  casual  laborer,  the  so-called  “home  guard,”  ( e ) 
the  bum.  Groups  c,  d ,  and  e  constitute  what  are  known 
in  economic  writings  as  “The  Residuum  of  Industry.”  In 
addition  to  these  groups  of  the  homeless  casual  and  migra¬ 
tory  workers  are  the  groups  of  seasonal  laborers  and 
the  men  out  of  work,  which  expand  and  contract  with 
the  periods  of  economic  depression  and  of  industrial 
prosperity. 

1  The  findings  and  recommendations  of  this  study  were  prepared  by  the 
Committee  on  Homeless  Men  of  the  Chicago  Council  of  Social  Agencies  and  its 
report  accepted  by  the  Council. 


[265 


266 


THE  HOBO 


5.  The  causes  which  reduce  a  man  to  the  status  of  a  homeless 
migratory  and  casual  worker  may  be  classified  under  five 
main  heads  as  follows: 

a)  Unemployment  and  Seasonal  Work:  these  maladjustments 
of  modern  industry  which  disorganize  the  routine  of  life 
of  the  individual  and  destroy  regular  habits  of  work. 

b)  Industrial  Inadequacy :  “  the  misfits  of  industry,”  whether 
due  to  physical  handicaps,  mental  deficiency,  occupa¬ 
tional  disease,  or  lack  of  vocational  training. 

c )  Defects  of  Personality:  as  feeble-mindedness,  constitu¬ 
tional  inferiority,  or  egocentricity,  which  lead  to  the 
conflict  of  the  person  with  constituted  authority  in 
industry,  society,  and  government. 

d)  Crises  in  the  Life  of  the  Person:  as  family  conflicts,  mis¬ 
conduct,  and  crime,  which  exile  a  man  from  home  and 
community  and  detach  him  from  normal  social  ties. 

e)  Racial  or  National  Discrimination:  where  race,  national¬ 
ity,  or  social  class  of  the  person  enters  as  a  factor  of 
adverse  selection  for  employment. 

/)  Wanderlust:  the  desire  for  new  experience,  excitement, 
and  adventure,  which  moves  the  boy  “to  see  the  world.” 

6.  To  satisfy  the  wants  and  wishes  of  the  thousands  of  home¬ 
less  migratory  and  casual  workers  at  the  lowest  possible 
cost,  specialized  institutions  and  enterprises  have  been 
established  in  Chicago.  These  include: 

a)  Employment  agencies. 

b)  Restaurants  and  lodging-houses, 
z)  Barber  colleges. 

d)  Outfitting  stores  and  clothing  exchanges. 

e)  Pawnshops. 

/)  Movies  and  burlesques. 

g)  Missions. 

h)  Local  political  and  social  organizations,  as  “The  Indus¬ 
trial  Workers  of  the  World”  and  the  “Hobo  College.” 

i)  Secular  street  meetings  and  radical  bookstores. 

7.  Chicago  as  the  great  clearing  house  of  employment  for  the 
states  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  naturally  and  inevitably 
becomes  the  temporary  home  of  men  out  of  work  for  the 
entire  region.  The  following  appear  to  be  the  facts  in 
regard  to  the  workers  and  the  conditions  of  employment: 


APPENDIXES 


267 


a)  Fluctuations  of  industry,  such  as  seasonal  changes,  and 
of  unemployment,  force  large  numbers  of  men  into  the 
group  of  homeless  migratory  and  casual  workers. 

b)  At  the  same  time,  the  homeless  migratory  and  casual 
worker  develops  irregular  habits  of  work  and  a  life-policy 
of  “living  from  hand  to  mouth.” 

c )  Employment  records  indicate  that  the  lower  grade  of 
casual  workers  prefer  work  by  the  day,  or  employment 
by  the  week  or  two,  to  “permanent”  positions  of  three 
months  or  longer. 

d )  The  Illinois  Free  Employment  offices,  efficiently  admin¬ 
istered  with  simple  but  well-kept  records  and  with 
courteous  treatment  of  applicants,  placed  50,482  persons 
in  the  year  ending  September  30,  1922,  mainly  in  positions 
in  and  near  Chicago. 

e)  The  private  employment  agencies  dealing  with  the  home¬ 
less  man,  about  fifty  in  number,  which  are,  in  general, 
poorly  equipped,  with  the  minimum  of  record  keeping 
required  by  law  and  with  inconsiderate  treatment  of 
applicants,  place  about  200,000  men  a  year  in  positions, 
for  the  most  part,  outside  of  Chicago. 

/)  The  law  relating  to  private  employment  agencies  as 
approved  June  15,  1909,  in  force  July  1,1909,  and  as 
amended  and  approved  June  7,  191 1,  in  force  July  1,  191 1, 
appears  not  to  be  enforced  in  two  points: 

i)  the  requirement  that  sections  three  (3),  four  (4),  and 
five  (5)  of  the  law  be  posted  in  a  conspicuous  place  in 
each  room  of  the  agency;  and 

ii)  the  return  to  the  applicant  of  three-fifths  of  the  regis¬ 
tration  and  other  fees  upon  failure  of  applicant  to 
accept  position  or  upon  his  discharge  for  cause. 

8.  The  health  and  hygiene  of  the  homeless  migratory  and  casual 
worker  is  of  vital  concern  not  only  for  his  economic  efficiency 
but  also  because  of  the  relation  of  his  high  mobility  to  the 
spread  of  communicable  diseases. 

9.  The  homeless  migratory  and  casual  workers  constitute  a 
womanless  group.  The  results  of  this  sex  isolation  are: 

a)  No  opportunity  for  the  expression  and  sublimation  of  the 
sex  impulse  in  the  normal  life  of  the  family. 


268 


THE  HOBO 


b )  In  a  few  cases,  the  substitution  for  marriage  of  free  unions 
more  or  less  casual,  usually  terminated  at  the  will  of  the 
man  without  due  regard  to  the  claims  of  the  woman. 

c )  The  dependence  of  the  greatest  number  of  homeless  men 
upon  the  professional  prostitute  of  the  lowest  grade  and 
the  cheapest  sort. 

d)  The  prevalence  of  sex  perversions,  as  masturbation  and 
homosexuality. 

10.  The  attraction  for  the  boy  of  excitement  and  adventure 

renders  him  peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  “call  of  the  road.” 

a)  Hundreds  of  Chicago  boys,  mainly  but  not  entirely  of 
wage-earning  families,  every  spring  “beat  their  way”  to 
the  harvest  fields,  impelled  by  wanderlust,  and  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  work  away  from  home. 

b)  Of  these  a  certain  proportion  acquire  the  migratory  habit 
and  may  pass  through  successive  stages  from  a  high-grade 
seasonal  worker  to  the  lowest  type  of  bum. 

c )  The  boy  on  the  road  and  in  the  city  is  constantly  under 
the  pressure  of  homosexual  exploitation  by  confirmed 
perverts  in  the  migratory  group. 

d )  Certain  areas  of  the  city  frequented  by  boys  have  been 
found  to  be  resorts  and  rendezvous  for  homosexual 
prostitution. 

11.  While  the  majority  of  the  homeless  migratory  workers  are 

American  citizens  of  native  stock: 

a )  They  are  in  large  numbers  for  practical  purposes  dis¬ 
franchised  because  they  seldom  remain  in  any  community 
long  enough  to  secure  legal  residence. 

b)  They  constitute  a  shifting  and  shiftless  group  without 
property  and  family,  and  with  no  effective  participation 
in  the  civic  life  of  the  community. 

c )  According  to  statements  from  police  authorities  they 
contribute  but  slightly  to  the  volume  of  serious  crime. 

d)  Both  on  the  road  and  in  the  city,  they  are  at  all  times 
subject  to  arbitrary  handling  and  arrest  by  private  and 
public  police  and  to  summary  trial  and  sentence  by  the 
court. 

e)  The  attitude  of  Chicago,  like  that  of  other  communities 
toward  the  homeless  man,  has  been  a  policy  of  defense 
intrusted  to  the  police  department  for  execution. 


APPENDIXES 


269 


12.  Social  service  to  the  homeless  migratory  and  casual  worker 

has  for  the  most  part  been  remedial  rather  than  preventive; 

unorganized  and  haphazard  rather  than  organized  and 

co-ordinated. 

a)  Professional  beggars  and  fakers  exploit  public  sympathy 
and  credulity  for  individual  gain  to  the  disadvantage  of 
the  men  who  need  and  deserve  assistance. 

b )  The  missions  and  certain  churches  feed,  clothe,  and  pro¬ 
vide  shelter  for  several  thousand  men  during  the  winter 
months. 

c )  The  Dawes  Hotel,  the  Christian  Industrial  League,  and 
the  Salvation  Army  hotels  provide  lodging  at  a  low  charge. 

d)  The  Salvation  Army  maintains  the  Industrial  Home  with 
workshops  which  accommodate  a  limited  number  of  men. 

e)  The  United  Charities  and  the  Central  Charity  (Catholic) 
Bureau,  although  concerned  mainly  with  family  relief, 
give  certain  forms  of  assistance  to  the  homeless  man. 

/)  The  Jewish  Social  Service  Bureau  maintains  a  depart¬ 
ment  for  homeless  men,  which  acts  as  a  referring  agency 
to  two  shelter  houses. 

g)  The  American  Legion  and  other  patriotic  organizations 
have  provided  assistance  of  various  types  to  the  ex- 
service  man  out  of  employment. 

h)  The  Municipal  Lodging  House,  which  closed  its  doors  in 
1918,  has  not  been  reopened,  despite  the  evident  need  of 
the  winters  of  1920-21  and  1921-22. 

i)  The  Cook  County  agent  provides  free  transportation  to 
non-residents  to  place  of  legal  residence  and  refers 
residents  to  Oak  Forest  Infirmary. 

j)  The  county  and  city  hospitals  and  dispensaries  provide 
free  medical  care. 

k)  Unco-ordinated  effort  of  the  organizations  for  service  to 
the  homeless  man  has  resulted  in  duplication  of  activi¬ 
ties,  a  low  standard  of  work,  and  the  neglect  of  a  construc¬ 
tive  program  of  rehabilitation. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

The  findings  of  this  study  indicate  conclusively: 
{a)  that  any  fundamental  solution  of  the  problem  is 
national  and  not  local,  and  (< b )  that  the  problem  of 


270 


THE  HOBO 


the  homeless  migratory  worker  is  but  an  aspect  of 
the  larger  problems  of  industry,  such  as  unemploy¬ 
ment,  seasonal  work,  and  labor  turnover. 

National  Program 

The  committee  approves,  as  a  national  program  for  the  con¬ 
trol  of  the  problem,  the  recommendations  suggested  by  the  studies 
on  unemployment  and  migratory  laborers  contained  in  the  Final 
Report  of  the  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations  (pp.  1 14-15; 
103): 

1.  The  enactment  of  appropriate  legislation  modifying  the  title 
of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  to  “Bureau  of  Immigration 
and  Employment”  and  providing  the  statutory  authority 
and  appropriations  necessary  for — 

a)  The  establishment  of  a  national  employment  system,1 
under  the  Department  of  Labor,  with  a  staff  of  well-paid 
and  specially  qualified  officials  in  the  main  offices  at 
least. 

b)  The  licensing,  regulation,  and  supervision  of  all  private 
employment  agencies  doing  an  interstate  business. 

c )  The  investigation  and  preparation  of  plans  for  the  regular¬ 
ization  of  employment,  the  decasualization  of  labor,  the 
utilization  of  public  work  to  fill  in  periods  of  business 
depression,  insurance  against  unemployment  in  such 
trades  and  industries  as  may  seem  desirable,  and  other 
measures  designed  to  promote  regularity  and  steadiness 
of  employment. 

2.  The  immediate  creation  of  a  special  board  made  up  of  the 
properly  qualified  officials  from  the  Departments  of  Agri¬ 
culture,  Commerce,  Interior,  and  Labor,  and  from  the  Board 
of  Army  Engineers  to  prepare  plans  for  performing  the  largest 
possible  amount  of  public  work  during  the  winter,  and  to 
devise  a  program  for  the  future  for  performing,  during  periods 
of  depression,  such  public  work  as  road  building,  construction 
of  public  building,  reforestation,  irrigation,  and  drainage  of 
swamps.  The  success  attending  the  construction  of  the 

xThe  United  States  Employment  Service  established  in  1918  requires 
adequate  appropriations  for  its  efficient  functioning. 


APPENDIXES 


271 


Panama  Canal  indicates  the  enormous  national  construction 
works  which  might  be  done  to  the  advantage  of  the  entire 
nation  during  such  periods  of  depression.  Similar  boards 
or  commissions  should  be  established  in  the  various  states 
and  municipalities. 

3.  The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  should  be  directed  by 
Congress  to  investigate  and  report  the  most  feasible  plan  of 
providing  for  the  transportation  of  workers  at  the  lowest 
reasonable  rates,  and,  at  the  same  time,  measures  necessary 
to  eliminate  the  stealing  of  rides  on  railways.  If  special 
transportation  rates  for  workers  are  provided,  tickets  may  be 
issued  only  to  those  who  secure  employment  through  public 
employment  agencies. 

4.  The  establishment  by  states,  municipalities,  and,  through  the 
Department  of  Labor,  the  federal  government,  of  sanitary 
workingmen’s  hotels  in  which  the  prices  for  accommodations 
shall  be  adjusted  to  the  cost  of  operation.  If  such  working¬ 
men’s  hotels  are  established,  the  Post  Office  Department 
should  establish  branch  postal  savings  banks  in  connection 
therewith. 

5.  The  establishment  by  the  municipal,  state,  and  federal  govern¬ 
ments  of  colonies  or  farms  for  “down  and  outs”  in  order  to 
rehabilitate  them  by  means  of  proper  food,  regular  habits  of 
living  and  regular  work  that  will  train  them  for  lives  of  use¬ 
fulness.  Such  colonies  should  provide  for  hospital  treatment 
of  cases  which  require  it. 

The  Chicago  Plan  for  the  Homeless  Man 

For  the  local  situation  and  for  such  action  as  lies  in  the  hands 
(a)  of  the  citizens  of  this  community,  (b)  of  the  city  of  Chicago, 
(c)  of  Cook  County,  and  {d)  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  this  com¬ 
mittee  recommends: 

I.  As  a  Program  for  Immediate  Action — 

1.  The  establishment  of  a  Municipal  Clearing  House  for 

Non-Family  Men. 

a)  Purpose : 

i)  To  provide  facilities  for  the  registration,  exami¬ 
nation,  classification,  and  treatment  of  homeless 


272 


THE  HOBO 


migratory  and  casual  workers  in  order,  on  the 
basis  of  individual  case-study, 

ii)  To  secure  by  reference  to  the  appropriate  agency 
emergency  relief,  physical  and  mental  rehabilita¬ 
tion,  industrial  training,  commitment  to  institu¬ 
tional  care,  return  to  legal  residence,  and 
satisfactory  employment. 

b)  Organization:  The  Clearing  House  will  maintain  the 
following  departments: 

i)  Information  Bureau:  to  provide  information  in 
regard  to  employment,  public  institutions,  social 
agencies,  indorsed  hotels,  and  lodging-houses,  etc. 

ii)  Registration:  by  card,  giving  name,  age,  occupa¬ 
tion,  physical  condition,  reference,  residence, 
nearest  relative  or  friend,  number  of  lodgings, 
disposition,  and  all  other  information. 

iii)  Vocational  Clinic:  to  provide  medical,  psychiat¬ 
ric,  psychological,  and  social  examination  as  a 
basis  of  treatment. 

iv)  Records  Office:  to  record  findings  of  examination, 
to  clear  with  other  agencies,  local  and  national, 
and  to  enter  recommendations  and  results  of 
treatment. 

v)  Social  Service  Bureau:  to  provide  for  both  immedi¬ 
ate  and  after-care  service  for  the  men  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Clearing  House. 

c)  Personnel:  to  consist  of  director,  clerical  force,  inter¬ 
viewers,  social  workers,  and  experts,  as  physician, 
psychiatrist,  psychologist,  and  sociologist. 

d)  Intake  of  Clearing  House:  registrants  to  be  referred  to 
the  Clearing  House  by: 

i)  Citizens ,  to  whom  homeless  men  have  applied  for 
relief. 

ii)  Missions ,  where  food  or  lodging  have  been 
received  by  homeless  men. 

iii)  Charities. 

iv)  Travelers'  Aid  Society. 

v)  Local  organizations. 


APPENDIXES 


273 


vi)  Police  Department :  closing  of  police  stations  to 
lodgers  and  provision  for  supply  of  such  appli¬ 
cants  with  tickets  of  admission  to  the  Clearing 
House;  direction  by  police  to  the  Clearing  House 
of  persons  found  for  the  first  time  begging. 

vii)  Courts ,  police  stations ,  House  of  Correction ,  and 
county  jail:  provision  to  every  homeless  man  or 
boy  upon  discharge  with  ticket  of  admission  to 
Clearing  House  guaranteeing  three  days’  liberty 
with  food,  lodging,  and  an  opportunity  for  honest 
employment. 

e)  Classification:  As  a  result  of  examination  in  the 
Vocational  Clinic  the  men  will  be  divided  for  treat¬ 
ment  into  three  groups:  (i)  boys  and  youths,  (2) 
employable  men,  and  (3)  unemployable  men.  The 
unemployable  will  be  further  divided  into:  (i)  the 
physically  handicapped,  (ii)  the  mentally  defective, 
(iii)  alcoholics  and  drug  addicts,  (iv)  the  habitually 
idle,  (v)  the  untrained,  and  (vi)  the  aged. 

/)  Treatment:  Upon  the  basis  of  the  preceding  examina¬ 
tion  and  classification,  the  men  will  be  given  the 
following  services: 

i)  Those  in  need  of  emergency  relief,  temporary 
lodging,  meals  and  bath,  by  the  agencies  in  the 
field  and  by  the  Municipal  Lodging  House 
(when  reopened). 

ii)  Those  in  need  of  clean  clothes,  free  laundry 
work  at  the  Municipal  Laundry  (to  be  estab¬ 
lished). 

iii)  Those  who  are  proper  charges  of  other  communi¬ 
ties  and  who  may  be  better  cared  for  there, 
transportation  from  relatives  or  from  Cook 
County  agent. 

iv)  Those  in  need  of  medical  service,  treatment  at 
the  Cook  County  Hospital,  Municipal  Tubercu¬ 
losis  Sanitarium,  or  dispensaries,  and  observa¬ 
tion  at  the  Psychopathic  Hospital. 

v)  For  the  unemployable  physically  disabled,  edu¬ 
cation  as  provided  in  the  Chicago  plan  for  the 


274 


THE  HOBO 


physically  handicapped  (under  consideration  by 
the  state  in  co-operation  with  private  agencies). 

vi)  For  the  unemployable  but  physically  able- 
bodied,  individual  arrangements  for  industrial 
education. 

vii)  For  the  aged  and  permanently  physically  dis¬ 
abled,  placement  in  the  Oak  Forest  Home. 

viii)  For  the  employable,  references  with  vocational 
diagnosis  and  recommendation  to  the  Illinois 
Free  Employment  offices  and  other  employment 
agencies. 

ix)  For  persons  under  the  supervision  of  the  Munici¬ 
pal  Clearing  House,  when  desirable,  individual 
case  work  and  after-care. 

x)  For  incorrigible  vagrants  and  beggars  for  whom 
no  constructive  treatment  is  provided  in  the 
program  for  immediate  action  (see  constructive 
treatment  in  “Program  for  Future  Action”) 
commitment  to  the  House  of  Correction. 

g)  Administration:  The  Clearing  House  to  be  admin¬ 
istered  by  the  city  of  Chicago  under  the  City  Depart¬ 
ment  of  Public  Welfare;  the  director  of  the  Clearing 
House  to  be  also  superintendent  of  the  Lodging  House 
and  of  the  Municipal  Laundry  and  the  Municipal 
Bath  House,  a  physician  on  full  time  to  be  assigned 
by  the  City  Department  of  Public  Health,  a  psychi¬ 
atrist  and  psychologist  by  the  state  criminologist  of 
the  State  Department  of  Public  Welfare. 

h)  Advisory  Committee:  Under  the  auspices  of  the 
Chicago  Council  of  Social  Agencies,  an  advisory  com¬ 
mittee  to  the  director  of  the  Clearing  House  be 
organized  to  be  composed  of  public  and  private 
agencies  and  civic,  philanthropic,  commercial,  indus¬ 
trial,  and  labor  organizations,  co-operating  with  the 
Clearing  House. 

i)  Financing:  An  appeal  to  be  made  at  once  to  the 
city  council  for  funds  to  equip  and  maintain  the 
Municipal  Clearing  House,  Municipal  Lodging  House, 
Laundry  and  Bath  House,  to  provide  for  the  following 
budget: 


APPENDIXES 


275 


Tentative  Annual  Budget  for  Caring  Adequately  for 
Homeless  Transient  Men  in  Chicago 


Clearing  House 

Maximum* 

Minimum 

Rent  of  headquarters,  including  light  and  heat . 

$  2,500.00 

Heat  and  light  in  free  quarters . 

Equipment . 

1 , 000 . 00 

$  1,000.00 
1,000.00 

Office  supplies,  stationery,  printing,  etc . 

500 . 00 

500.00 

Staff: 

Superintendent . 

6 , 000 . 00 

4,000.00 

Assistant . 

2 , 500 . 00 
9,000.00 

Six  interviewers  and  field  workers . 

Two  interviewers  and  field  workers . 

4 , OOO . OO 

Two  stenographers . 

2 , 400 . 00 

One  stenographer . 

I , 500 . 00 

Physician  (part  time) . 

1 , 800 . 00 

Psychiatrist  (part  time) . 

1 , 800 . 00 

Director  of  vocational  guidance . 

4. .  000 . 00 

Janitors . 

1 , 800.00 

I , 800 . 00 

$13,800.00 

Total . 

#33>300-00 

*  The  maximum  budget  represents  expenditures  in  the  event  headquarters  cannot 
be  secured  free  of  rent,  services  of  physician  and  psychiatrist  cannot  be  secured  from 
city  and  Institute  for  Juvenile  Research,  and  at  a  time  when  a  full  staff  will  be  necessary. 


i.  The  reopening  of  the  Municipal  Lodging  House  under  the 
following  conditions  (adapted  from  “Program  for  Model 
Municipal  Lodging  House,”  by  Raymond  Robins): 

a)  Administration:  under  the  City  Department  of  Pub¬ 
lic  Health  in  close  affiliation  with  the  Clearing  House 
for  Homeless  Men. 

h)  Purpose:  to  provide  free,  under  humane  and  sanitary 
conditions,  food,  lodging,  and  bath,  with  definite 
direction  for  such  permanent  relief  as  is  needed  for 
any  man  or  boy  stranded  in  Chicago. 

c)  Registration  and  preliminary  physical  examination: 
made  in  Clearing  House  a  condition  to  admission. 

d)  Standard  of  service: 

i)  Sanitary  building. 

ii)  Wholesome  food. 

iii)  Dormitories  quiet,  beds  comfortable  and  clean. 

iv)  First-aid  treatment:  vaccination,  bandages  and 
simple  medicaments  furnished  free. 


276 


THE  HOBO 


v)  Isolation  ward  for  men  suffering  from  inebriety, 
insanity,  venereal  diseases,  etc. 

vi)  Fumigation  of  lodgers’  clothing,  including  hat 
and  shoes,  every  night. 

vii)  Nightly  shower  bath  required. 

3.  The  establishment  of  a  Municipal  Laundry  and  a  Munici¬ 
pal  Bath  House  by  the  city  of  Chicago:  to  be  operated  in 
close  affiliation  with  the  Municipal  Clearing  House. 

4.  Utilization  of  existing  facilities  for  industrial  training: 
Co-operation  with  existing  educational  institutions  for 
the  vocational  training  of  boys  and  youths  and  of  the 
physically  handicapped,  mentally  defective,  and  industri¬ 
ally  inadequate  who  are  unemployable  but  willing  to 
work.  (See  “Program  for  Future  Action.”) 

5.  Employment  agencies: 

a)  The  extension  of  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Free 
Employment  office. 

b)  The  enforcement  of  the  law  relating  to  private  em¬ 
ployment  agencies:  the  requirement  that  sections 
three  (3),  four  (4),  and  five  (5),  of  the  law  be  posted 
in  a  conspicuous  place  in  each  room  of  the  agency; 
and  the  return  to  the  applicant  of  three-fifths  of  the 
registration  and  other  fees  upon  the  failure  of  appli¬ 
cant  to  accept  position  or  upon  his  discharge  for  cause. 

c)  The  further  study  of  private  employment  agencies 
and  of  labor  camps  in  order  to  provide  the  homeless 
man  with  adequate  protection  against  exploitation. 

6.  Public  health  and  housing: 

a)  The  further  building  of  sanitary  workingmen’s  hotels 
with  low  charge  for  accommodations. 

b)  The  maintenance  and  raising  of  standards  of  cheap 
hotels  in  Chicago  through  rigid  inspection  and  tighten¬ 
ing  of  requirements. 

c)  Medical  examination,  inspection,  and  supervision  of 
men  in  flops,  together  with  vaccination  and  hospital¬ 
ization  of  needy  cases. 

7.  Vagrancy  Court:  the  reorganization  of  the  Vagrancy 
Court  for  the  hearing  of  cases  of  incorrigible  vagrants 
and  beggars  on  the  basis  of  the  investigations  of  the 
Clearing  House. 


APPENDIXES 


277 


8.  Protection  of  the  boy: 

a )  Prevention  of  aimless  wandering  through  the  provi¬ 
sion  of  wholesome  and  stimulating  recreation,  through 
the  extension  of  all  activities  for  boys,  and  through  the 
further  development  of  vocational  education  and 
supervision.  The  Vocational  Guidance  Bureau  of 
the  Board  of  Education  should  be  removed  to  an 
area  of  the  city  free  from  unwholesome  contacts. 

b )  An  educational  campaign  organized  through  the  Mid- 
West  Boy’s  Club  Federation  should  be  carried  on  in 
all  the  boys’  organizations  in  Chicago  showing  the 
danger  of  “flipping”  trains  and  playing  in  railroad 
yards.  The  National  Safety  Council  has  a  great  deal 
of  material  which  could  be  used  in  such  a  campaign. 

c )  Co-operation  with  such  organization  as  the  Brother¬ 
hood  of  Railway  Trainmen,  the  special  police  organ¬ 
izations  of  the  railroads,  the  Lake  Carriers  Associa¬ 
tion,  and  automobile  clubs,  in  a  program  to  prevent 
boys  wandering  away  from  home.  Pamphlets  should 
be  prepared  for  distribution,  asking  for  co-operation 
and  enforcement  of  working  certificate  regulations 
in  this  and  other  states,  child  labor  laws,  juvenile 
court  laws,  etc. 

d)  The  enlistment  officers  of  the  army,  navy,  and  marine 
should  demand  the  presentation  of  a  birth  certificate 
in  all  cases  in  which  they  doubt  the  age  of  the 
applicant. 

e )  The  co-operation  of  the  managers  of  the  hotels  and 
lodging-houses  in  an  effort  to  keep  boys  under  seven¬ 
teen  out  of  the  hotels  in  the  Hobohemian  areas,  or  at 
least  to  use  their  influence  in  preventing  boys  and 
men  from  rooming  together. 

f)  Because  most  of  the  contacts  the  boy  has  with  tramps 
are  unwholesome,  the  police  should  not  permit  boys 
to  loiter  or  play  in  the  areas  most  frequented  by  the 
tramp  population;  namely,  West  Madison  Street, 
South  State  Street,  North  Clark  Street,  and  adjacent 
territory.  Parents  ought  to  be  made  aware  of  the 
nature  of  the  contacts  the  boy  has  with  the  tramp  in 
these  areas  and  in  the  parks. 


278 


THE  HOBO 


g)  The  assignment  of  special  plain-clothes  policemen 
experienced  in  dealing  with  vagrants  to  the  parks  and 
other  places  in  which  tramps  congregate.  They 
should  be  instructed  to  pick  up  and  hold  in  the  Deten¬ 
tion  Home  any  boy  under  seventeen  years  found  in 
company  with  a  tramp. 

h)  More  strenuous  effort  should  be  made  to  occupy  the 
leisure  time  of  boys  who  frequent  the  districts  in 
which  the  tramps  congregate.  It  is  the  boy  with 
leisure  time  who  is  the  most  susceptible  to  the  unwhole¬ 
some  contacts.  Supervised  recreation  should  be 
carried  on  to  an  extent  that  boys  who  play  in  Hobo- 
hemian  areas  might  be  attracted  to  other  sections. 
When  school  is  not  in  session  a  more  extensive  pro¬ 
gram  of  summer  camps  might  help. 

i)  Since  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Cook  County  is  equipped 
to  investigate  the  cases  of  vagrant  boys  under  seven¬ 
teen  in  Chicago,  and  return  them  to  their  homes,  all 
vagrant  boys  apprehended  by  anyone  in  the  daytime 
should  be  reported  to  the  chief  probation  officer, 
Juvenile  Court.  Vagrant  boys  over  seventeen  should 
be  directed  to  the  Clearing  House. 

j)  After  five  o’clock  vagrant  boys  under  seventeen  should 
be  turned  over  to  the  police  who  will  take  them  to 
the  Detention  Home,  from  which  home  they  will  be 
taken  to  the  office  of  the  chief  probation  officer  the 
first  thing  in  the  morning. 

k )  Whenever  a  boy  under  seventeen  is  taken  in  custody 
by  the  police,  because  of  contact  with  tramps,  or 
whenever  a  boy  is  held  as  a  complaining  witness 
against  a  tramp,  he  should  always  be  reported  to  the 
Juvenile  Court.  It  is  the  responsibility  of  the  court 
to  put  the  boy  in  touch  with  some  proper  individual 
or  agency,  so  that  he  will  be  adequately  supervised 
and  befriended  in  the  future. 

9.  Publicity  and  public  co-operation:  the  education  of  the 
public  through  news  items  in  the  daily  press  and  editorial 
comment;  public  co-operation  through  tickets  of 
admission  to  the  Clearing  House  providing  food  and 
lodging  in  the  Municipal  Lodging  House  constantly  to 


APPENDIXES 


279 


be  distributed  through  societies,  institutions,  hotels, 
business  offices,  churches,  clubs,  housewives,  and  other 
citizens. 

II.  A  Program  for  Future  Action — 

1.  That  a  bond  issue  be  submitted  for  approval  to  the  voters 
of  the  city  of  Chicago  providing  for  the  erection  of  ade¬ 
quate  buildings  for  a  Municipal  Clearing  House,  Munici¬ 
pal  Lodging  House,  and  Municipal  Laundry  and  Bath 
House. 

2.  That  an  Industrial  Institute  be  established  by  the  state 
of  Illinois  in  Chicago  for  the  vocational  training  of  the 
physically  handicapped,  mentally  defective,  and  indus¬ 
trially  inadequate,  who  are  unemployable,  but  willing 
to  work. 

3.  That  a  State  Farm  Colony  for  Industrial  Rehabilitation  be 
established  by  the  state  of  Illinois  for  the  compulsory 
detention  and  re-education  of  unemployables,  such  as 
beggars,  vagrants,  petty  criminals,  who  are  unwilling 
to  receive  industrial  training. 

4.  That  a  Department  of  Industrial  Training  of  the  House  of 
Correction  be  opened,  pending  the  establishment  of  the 
State  Farm  Colony  for  Industrial  Rehabilitation,  for 
the  commitment  and  re-education  of  unemployables, 
such  as  beggars,  vagrants,  and  petty  criminals. 


APPENDIX  B 

DOCUMENTS  AND  MATERIALS 


CHAPTER  I.  HOBOHEMIA  DEFINED 

1 15.  Summary  of  a  Study  of  Four  Hundred  Tramps ,  Nels  Ander¬ 
son,  summer,  1921. 

124.  An  evening  spent  on  the  benches  in  Grant  Park;  description 
of  men  and  their  talk. 

135.  A  Study  of  Eight  Cases  of  Homeless  Men  in  Lodging  Houses , 
R.  N.  Wood,  December,  1922. 

145.  An  unpublished  paper  on  the  hobo,  “Along  the  Main  Stem 
with  Red,”  Harry  M.  Beardsley,  March  20,  1917. 

146.  Chicago' s  Hobo  Area>  Sherman  O.  Cooper,  December,  1917. 

157.  Chicago's  Hobo  District ,  Melville  J.  Herskovits,  December, 

I9I9* 

159.  Comparative  statistics  for  the  three  wards  in  which  Hobo- 
hemia  is  located,  1910-20. 

CHAPTER  II.  THE  JUNGLES:  THE  HOMELESS  MAN  ABROAD 

i.  “A  Day  in  the  Jungles,”  A.  W.  Dragstedt,  a  hobo  who 
knows  the  jungles. 

76.  “Job  Hunting  via  Box-Car  in  the  Northwest,”  Hobo  News , 
Bill  Quirke,  September,  1921. 


CHAPTER  III.  THE  LODGING  HOUSE:  THE  HOMELESS 

MAN  AT  HOME 

2-3.  Recital  of  an  evening  spent  by  Nels  Anderson  in  a  flop- 
house,  April,  1922. 

70.  Statistics:  Bridewell  population,  lodging-house  patrons, 
registered  voters. 

79.  Report  of  Visit  to  Ten  Gambling  Houses  in  Hobohemia ,  Nels 
Anderson,  January  1,  1923. 

105.  Casual  worker,  ex-soldier,  twenty-eight,  few  days  in  town, 
lost  money  in  gambling-house. 

1 51.  A  Dozen  Hotels  in  the  Loop ,  George  F.  David,  August,  1922. 


CHAPTER  IV.  “GETTING  BY”  IN  HOBOHEMIA 

4.  Jewish  hobo,  parasitic  philosophy,  middle-aged,  begs  from 
Jewish  agencies  in  all  cities. 


[281 


282 


THE  HOBO 


5.  Transient  dreamer,  twenty-seven,  known  to  many  agencies 
in  different  cities. 

6.  Boy  in  teens,  Jewish,  moves  with  ease  from  agency  to 
agency,  good  solicitor. 

7.  City  bum,  twenty-four,  petty  robber,  works  occasionally, 
jail  experience. 

8.  “Fat,”  a  panhandler  with  a  self-justifying  philosophy, 
works  on  favorable  jobs. 

9.  Englishman,  forty-one,  paralyzed  arm,  alcoholic,  mendi¬ 
cant,  was  a  bricklayer. 

89.  Faker,  Bulgarian,  forty-five,  plays  deaf  and  dumb,  “works” 
restaurants. 

90.  Home-guard  bum,  sixty-nine,  works  at  odd  jobs,  often 
mendicant,  drinks  some. 

95.  Ex-soldier,  funds  about  gone,  going  East  for  work,  clean, 
sober,  “working”  charities. 

97.  Boy  tramp,  eighteen,  left  home  to  avoid  school,  wants  to 
be  engineer,  works. 

98.  Two  young  men  temporarily  without  money  and  work, 
adjusted  in  a  few  days. 

102.  City  bum,  thirty-five,  talkative,  lazy  and  unkempt,  mendi¬ 
cant  much  of  time. 

103.  Away  from  family  for  work,  gets  money  from  wife,  loafs, 
later  returns  home. 

104.  Jewish  tramp,  sells  papers,  tin  worker,  served  time  in  jail 
for  wife  desertion. 

hi.  Loafs,  fat,  unattractive,  works  some,  not  welcome  home; 
his  family  send  him  money. 

1 12.  Well-to-do  sister  ashamed  of  him,  sends  him  money;  he 
calls  it  “borrowing.” 

1 13.  Beggar  with  a  philosophy,  condemns  peddlers  who  beg  part 
of  time,  works  occasionally. 

123.  Spanish  war  and  world-war  veteran,  forty-six,  compensa¬ 
tion,  tries  to  go  to  school. 

13 1.  Description  of  life  with  the  “slum  proletariat”  by  one  of 
them. 

152.  Mendicancy  in  Chicago ,  Melvin  L.  Olsen,  December,  1919. 

155.  Case  Studies  of  Beggars  in  Chicago ,  Joseph  Arnsdorff, 
December  16,  1919. 

1 6 1 .  Statement  from  the  secretary  of  the  Mid-City  Commercial 
Association  on  the  hobo  problem. 


APPENDIXES 


283 


CHAPTER  V.  WHY  DO  MEN  LEAVE  HOME  ? 

10.  Pioneer  hobo  and  tramp,  “played  all  the  games,”  fifty-six, 
blames  self  for  misspent  life. 

11.  Belgian,  fifty-eight,  coal  miner,  lumber  jack,  Chicago  in 
winter,  single,  seldom  penniless. 

12.  Pioneer  hobo,  fifty-one,  perhaps  dying,  miner’s  “con,” 
away  from  home  (Ohio)  thirty  years. 

13.  Migratory  worker,  single,  fifty-six,  ever  restless,  mines, 
sea,  harvest,  sheep  shearer. 

14.  Anemic  man,  lung  trouble,  textile  worker,  light  work  only, 
hopes  open  air  will  help. 

15.  Beggar,  peddler,  one  leg,  industrial  accident,  justifies 
begging  and  drink. 

16.  Migrant,  would  settle  down,  drinks,  loses  jobs,  single, 
getting  old,  health  failing. 

17.  “Dope”  user,  weak,  anemic,  poorly  clad,  dirty,  beat  way 
from  Boston. 

18.  Old  man,  seventy-eight,  poor-farm  and  hospital  experience, 
mendicant,  lives  on  fifty  or  sixty  cents  a  day. 

19.  Restless  young  man,  twenty-four,  no  permanent  desires, 
carpenter,  capable,  sober,  congenial. 

20.  Restless  young  worker,  easily  bored  by  the  monotony  of  a 

job- 

26.  Irish,  ex-soldier,  ex-sailor,  twenty-seven,  sings,  wants  to 
study  music,  ex-secretary  of  “Hobo  College.” 

27.  Feeble-minded,  left  home  in  war  time,  odd  jobs,  in  town 
often,  often  in  missions. 

28.  Pessimistic,  imaginative,  unstable,  about  forty-five,  fair 
worker. 

29.  Periodical  drinker,  quarrelsome  when  drunk,  otherwise 
good  worker. 

30.  College  man,  twenty-seven,  ex-salesman,  left  wife,  homo¬ 
sexual  experience,  avoids  work. 

31.  Chronic  drinker,  stockyards  worker,  seldom  migrates, 
many  arrests,  away  from  wife  twelve  years. 

32.  Boy  tramp,  sixteen,  on  way  to  Texas,  from  Ohio,  parents 
dead,  only  brother  a  soldier. 

33.  Left  home  when  jilted  by  girl,  too  sensitive  to  return,  very 
transient. 

34.  Returned  home  after  jail  experience,  humiliated,  left  home, 
away  for  several  years. 


284 


THE  HOBO 


35.  Ex-soldier,  as  small-town  boy  left  home  in  crisis,  stayed 
away  to  make  bluff  good,  twenty-two. 

36.  Boy  left  home  in  fear  of  punishment  from  father,  returns 
occasionally. 

37.  Migrant  because  of  trouble  over  woman,  about  thirty, 
dare  not  return,  radical. 

38.  Became  migratory  to  avoid  paying  alimony,  dare  not 
return,  about  forty. 

39.  Boy  tramp,  nineteen,  egotist,  traveled  much,  works  little, 
gambles,  jail  record. 

40.  Oldest  boy  becomes  runaway,  twenty,  other  boys  in  family 
follow,  dislikes  father. 

CHAPTER  VI.  THE  HOBO  AND  THE  TRAMP 

41.  Scotchman,  thirty-two,  single,  ex-soldier,  sailor,  nurse  in 
winters,  casual  in  summer. 

42.  Deck  hand  summers,  migrant  to  South  in  winter,  single, 
generally  sober. 

43.  Carpenter,  casual,  often  discharged,  would  settle  but  losing 
efficiency  by  drink. 

44.  Old  man,  fifty-eight,  plasterer,  fair  worker  but  casual,  has 
ceased  migrating,  sober. 

45.  One-time  harvest  hand,  seldom  leaves  Chicago,  peddles 
trinkets,  gambles. 

46.  Romantic  tramp,  revels  in  wandering,  carries  tiny  camera, 
seeks  notice,  does  not  work. 

86.  Recital  of  experiences  of  boy  tramp,  now  a  doctor  in  Chicago. 

91.  Russian,  able-bodied  hobo,  about  thirty-five,  clean,  sober, 
works  in  and  near  Chicago. 

92.  Boy,  eighteen,  on  way  home  (Indiana)  from  winter  in 
West,  plans  to  leave  tramp  life. 

100.  Congenial,  irresponsible  man  of  twenty-five,  sober,  clean, 
very  transient,  works  as  porter. 

109.  Runaway  boy  from  Hammond,  Indiana,  sixteen,  in  Hobo- 
hemia  looking  for  work,  very  worldly  wise. 

CHAPTER  VII.  THE  HOME  GUARD  AND  THE  BUM 

47.  City  bum,  twenty-three,  in  missions  when  broke,  works  as 
teamster,  “got”  religion  once. 

48.  Wife  deserter,  drinks,  loiters  on  “stem,”  odd  jobs,  formerly 
pig  killer. 


APPENDIXES 


285 


49.  Ex-pugilist,  single,  forty-five,  now  mission  “  stiff, ”  works 
on  docks  in  summer,  alcoholic. 

50.  Health  ruined  by  drink,  thirty-two,  light  jobs,  baker, 
farms  in  summer,  Chicago  much  of  time. 

72.  Crippled  in  industrial  accident,  sixty-two,  family  grown, 
would  care  for  him,  drinks. 

78.  Classification  of  types  of  homeless  men  submitted  by  Mr. 
Wirth  of  Jewish  charities. 

127.  Classification  of  tramps,  hobos,  and  other  types  of  home¬ 
less  men  by  Dr.  Ben  L.  Reitman. 

CHAPTER  VIII.  WORK 

73.  Pioneer  type,  fifty,  seldom  comes  East,  miner,  prospector, 
lumber  jack. 

77.  Man  forced  to  be  idle  by  hard  times,  learned  to  get  along, 
later  refused  work. 

83.  Old  man,  fifty,  single,  winters  in  Chicago,  farm  jobs  in 
summer,  drinks  some. 

93.  Laborer,  migrant,  forty-four,  becoming  radical  on  account 
of  work  shortage,  had  some  money. 

94.  Ex-soldier,  twenty-seven,  without  funds  but  hopeful, 
hustling  worker. 

96.  Boy  tramp,  twenty,  reformatory  record,  traveled  much  in 
three  years. 

1 14.  Brought  cattle  from  Wyoming  to  Chicago,  lost  all  with 
women  and  drink,  still  happy. 

134.  Study  of  Employment  Agencies  and  Labor  Placement  Prob¬ 
lems ,  E.  H.  Koster,  August,  1922. 

158.  The  Unemployed  and  the  Unemployable  in  Chicago ,  Rupert 
R.  Lewis,  December,  1917. 

160.  Statistics  of  the  Chicago  Free  Employment  offices  for  the 
year  ending  September  30,  1922. 

CHAPTER  IX.  HEALTH 

106.  Ex-soldier,  released  from  army  hospital,  gets  compensation, 
drinks  much. 

107.  Italian  bricklayer,  rheumatism,  gets  aid  from  union, 
family  in  Italy,  sons  in  war. 

108.  Mental  case,  talks  to  self,  attracts  much  attention  on 
street,  loud  and  vulgar. 


286 


THE  HOBO 


1 17.  Teamster,  thirty-six,  raised  in  slum,  unemployable  with 
locomotor  ataxia,  peddles  pencils. 

1 21.  Chicago  boy,  does  not  go  home,  needs  medical  attention 
for  feet  and  eyes,  gambles. 

122.  Boy  tramp,  great  wanderer,  homosexual,  intelligent,  two 
years  on  road. 

139.  Mortality  statistics  for  Hobohemia  for  1922,  non-resident 
cases. 

147.  Communication  of  Dr.  Herman  N.  Bundesen,  commis¬ 
sioner  of  public  health,  concerning  the  health  and  medical 
care  of  the  homeless  man  in  Chicago. 

CHAPTER  X.  SEX  LIFE 

51.  Middle-aged  woman,  character  on  West  Madison  Street, 
feeds  cats,  scolds  everyone. 

52.  Street  faker,  aspires  to  be  actor,  jail  experience,  free-union 
experience. 

53.  Boy  tramp,  going  West,  travels  without  difficulty  but  is 
often  accosted  by  perverts. 

54.  Homosexual  case,  boy  involved,  man  died  in  jail  while 
awaiting  trial. 

55.  Bum  who  works  on  docks  and  boats,  involved  in  boy  case, 
Bridewell  for  term. 

81.  Four  boys  in  Grant  Park,  each  with  jail  and  tramp  experi¬ 
ence. 

82.  Case  of  boy  in  teens,  tramp,  “flirting”  with  men  in  Grant 
Park. 

87.  Cases  of  Venereal  Disease  Due  to  Homosexual  Infection ,  Dr. 
Ben  L.  Reitman. 

no.  Boy  tramp,  nineteen,  exploited  by  perverts,  decidedly 
feeble-minded,  on  way  home  (Indiana). 

120.  Young  man,  twenty-two,  well  dressed,  homosexual  prosti¬ 
tute,  loafs  in  Grant  Park. 

125.  Observations  upon  the  unnatural  attachments  of  some 
homeless  men  and  boys. 

141.  Wife  deserter,  left  home  to  enable  her  to  divorce  him. 

142.  Statistics  showing  marital  condition  of  homeless  men. 

153.  The  Sexual  Life  of  Habitual  Wanderers ,  J.  L.  Handelman, 

August  22,  1919. 


APPENDIXES 


287 


CHAPTER  XI.  CITIZENSHIP 

56.  Case  of  a  transient  voter  showing  difficulty  hobo  has  of 
voting. 

57.  Hobo’s  affair  with  police  in  Kansas,  hobo  bitter  against 
police. 

58.  University  of  Iowa  student  and  police,  fair  observer,  has 
been  hobo,  letter  to  writer. 

59.  Recital  of  hobo  and  private  police  in  Ohio,  narrator  has 
settled  in  Chicago. 

80.  Report  of  visit  to  police  court,  hobos  tried  at  rate  of  one 
a  minute,  August  28,  1922. 

85.  Report  of  Two  Weeks’  Commitment  to  the  Cook  County  Jail, 
Nels  Anderson,  May,  1922. 

149.  Case  of  police  persecution. 

162.  Newspaper  clippings  on  the  death  of  Martin  Talbert  in  a 
Florida  convict  camp. 

CHAPTER  XII.  HOBOHEMIAN  PERSONALITIES 

22.  Marxian  socialist,  soap-boxer,  dogmatic  and  undiplomatic, 
would  educate  “slaves.” 

25.  Dreamer,  poet,  migrant,  critic,  very  changeable,  good 
family,  single,  ex-soldier. 

75.  Pamphlet  on  Mike  Walsh  published  by  himself,  states  his 
policies  and  achievements. 

126.  Character  sketch  of  J.  E.  How,  “Millionaire  Hobo,”  also 
correspondence  with  Nels  Anderson. 

CHAPTER  XIII.  THE  INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  THE  HOBO 

23.  Tries  to  write  saleable  songs  and  novels,  sober  but  gambles, 
single. 

1 1 6.  Leader  in  hobo  organization,  writes  for  Hobo  News ,  carries 
I.W.W.  card. 

1 19.  Hobo  philosopher,  carrys  bundle,  sells  pamphlets  about 
self,  sleeps  in  parks. 

129.  Thirty-one  copies  of  the  Hobo  News  containing  various 
types  of  hobo  literature. 

150.  Manuscript  on  “What  the  Hobo  Reads,”  Daniel  Horsley. 

CHAPTER  XIV.  HOBO  SONGS  AND  BALLADS 

130.  Collection  of  hobo  songs  and  poems  made  by  Nels  Anderson, 
forty-one  selections. 


288 


THE  HOBO 


CHAPTER  XV.  THE  SOAP  BOX  AND  THE  OPEN  FORUM 

21.  Soap-boxer,  scientific  bent,  takes  self  and  message  seriously, 
calls  it  “  education. ” 

24.  Single-tax  advocate,  about  fifty,  living  away  from  family, 
sells  Ford’s  Weekly. 

60.  Notes  on  an  afternoon’s  series  of  talks  on  the  soap  box  on 
Madison  Street. 

138.  Debate,  “Hobo  College”  v.  students  from  the  University 
of  Chicago,  “Kansas  Industrial  Courts,”  April  12,  1923. 

140.  Study  of  “ Hobo  College ”  in  Chicago ,  Charles  W.  Allen 
(teacher  at  college),  1923. 

CHAPTER  XVI.  SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

61.  Co-operative  movements  among  hobos,  experiences  of 
John  X.  Kelly,  now  in  Chicago. 

74.  Financial  statement  of  the  I.W.W.,  May  and  June,  1922. 

84.  Conversation  with  an  I.W.W.  who  was  once  a  steady 
migratory  worker,  old  soldier. 

CHAPTER  XVII.  MISSIONS  AND  WELFARE  AGENCIES 

62.  “Visit  to  Bible  Rescue  Mission,”  Nels  Anderson’s  experi¬ 
ence,  spring,  1922. 

63.  Salvation  Army  Revival ,  Sherman  O.  Cooper. 

64.  Case  of  “X”  at  the  Bible  Rescue  Mission,  bears  public 
testimony  to  former  badness. 

65.  Ex-bum  and  wife  deserter,  graduate  foreign  university, 
steady  man  now. 

66.  Mission  worker,  “saved”  twenty  years  ago,  was  alcoholic 
and  a  failure,  in  business  now. 

67.  German,  Madison  Street  bum,  came  into  mission  to  get 
warm,  got  religion,  left  old  life. 

68.  Ex-drunkard,  often  thrown  out  of  mission,  finally  got 
converted  and  is  a  new  man. 

69.  Young  man,  mission  “stiff,”  easily  converted,  became  a 
“backslider”  next  day. 

71.  Wife  deserter,  mission  hanger-on,  clean,  erect,  active  but 
avoids  work. 

99.  Letter  by  Bill  Quirke  to  Hobo  News  on  missions  in  Los 
Angeles.  He  assails  missions. 

1 1 8.  Ex-soldier  in  Legion  headquarters,  trying  to  get  job  on 
strength  of  army  experience. 


APPENDIXES 


289 


143.  Study  of  Missions  and  Mission  Characters ,  L.  G.  Brown, 
1923. 

156.  A  Study  of  Missions,  H.  D.  Wolf,  August,  1922. 

APPENDIX  A.  SUMMARY  OF  FINDINGS  AND 
RECOMMENDATIONS 

128.  Unpublished  materials  by  Nels  Anderson,  covering  his 
study  of  400  tramps,  230  typewritten  pages. 

144.  Study  of  no  Runaway  Boys  in  Chicago  Retention  Home , 
F.  C.  Frey  and  B.  W.  Bridgman,  1922. 

148.  “Outline  of  Program  for  the  Prevention  and  Treatment  of 
Vagrancy,”  prepared  by  the  Committee  on  Relief  of  the 
Chicago  Council  of  Social  Agencies,  and  submitted  to  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Council,  June  13,  1918. 

154.  Responses  to  requests  for  information  on  the  homeless 
man  problem  from  social  agencies  in  the  larger  American 
cities. 


APPENDIX  C 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 


HISTORY  AND  SOCIOLOGY  OF  WANDERLUST  AND  VAGRANCY 

Aydelotte,  Frank,  Elizabethan  Rogues  and  Vagabonds  (“Oxford 
Historical  and  Literary  Studies”).  Oxford:  Clarendon 
Press,  1913.  Pp.  187. 

Florian,  Eugenio,  I  Vagabondi  Studio  Sociologico-guiridicoy 
Parte  prima ,  V  Evoluzione  del  Vagabondaggio.  Torino, 
1897.  Pp*  1-124. 

Hutten,  John  Camden,  The  Book  of  Vagabonds  and  Beggars. 
Translated  and  printed  in  England  by  Hutton,  i860. 

Joffroy  and  Dupouy,  Fugues  et  Vagabondage.  Paris:  Alcan, 
1909.  Pp.  368. 

Marie,  A.  A.,  and  Meunier,  R.,  Les  Vagabonds.  Paris:  Giard 
and  Briere,  1908.  Pp.  331. 

Mariet,  “Le  vagabondage  constitutionnel  des  degeneres” 
(continued  article),  Annales  medicopsychologique ,  1911-12. 

Mayhew,  Henry,  London  Labour  and  the  London  Poor.  London : 
Griffin,  1862.  Pp.  504. 

Pagnier,  Armand,  Du  Vagabondage  et  des  Vagabonds ,  Etude 
Psychologique ,  Sociologique  et  Medico-legale.  Lyons,  France: 
1906. 

Parker,  Carlton  H.,  The  Casual  Laborer.  New  York:  Har- 
court,  Brace  &  Howe,  1920.  Pp.  199. 

Ribton-Turner,  Charles  J.,  A  History  of  Vagrants  and  Va¬ 
grancy  and  Beggars  and  Begging.  London:  1887.  Pp.  720. 

Speek,  Peter  A.,  “The  Psychology  of  the  Floating  Workers,” 
Annals  of  the  Amer.  Acad,  of  Pol.  and  Soc.  Science  (Phila¬ 
delphia),  LXIX,  72-78. 

Tannenbaum,  Frank,  The  Labor  Movement.  New  York: 
Putnam,  1921.  Pp.  259. 

Thanet,  Octave,  “The  Tramp  in  Four  Centuries,”  Lippincotts , 
XXIII  (May,  1879),  565. 

Tugwell,  Rexford  G.,  “The  Gypsy  Strain,”  Pacific  Monthly 
Review ,  III,  177-96. 

Wilmanns,  Karl,  Zur  Psychopathologie  des  Landstreichers . 
Leipzig:  Barth,  1906.  Pp.  418. 

Wilmanns,  Karl,  “Psychoses  among  Tramps,”  Centralblatt 
fur  N ' ervenheilkunde ,  December,  1902. 

[291 


292 


THE  HOBO 


THE  LABOR  MARKET  AND  INDUSTRIAL  MOBILITY 

Baker,  Oliver  E.,  Seed  Time  and  Harvest ,  Bull.  United  States 
Dept,  of  Agric.,  No.  i8j,  March,  1922. 

Brissenden,  Paul  F.,  “Measurement  of  Labor  Mobility,” 
Jour,  of  Pol.  Econ .,  XXVIII  (June,  1920),  441-76. 
Brissenden,  Paul  F.,  and  Frankel,  Emil,  “Mobility  of 
Industrial  Labor,”  Pol.  Science  Quar.,  XXXV  (December, 
1920),  566-600. 

Devine,  Edward  T.,  “The  Shiftless  and  Floating  City  Popula¬ 
tion,”  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Soc.  and  Pol. 
Science ,  X  (September,  1897),  149-64. 

Fry,  Luther  C.,  “Migratory  Workers  of  Our  Industries,” 
World' s  Work ,  XL  (October,  1920),  600. 

Immigration  Commission,  Reports  of,  The  Floating  Immigrant 
Labor  Supply  ( Immigrants  in  Industry ),  25  parts,  XVIII, 
331-525.  Senate  Reports,  Washington,  1911. 

Lescohier,  Don  D.,  The  Harvest  Worker ,  Bull.  United  States 
Dept,  of  Labor,  No.  1020 ,  April,  1922. 

Lescohier,  Don  D.,  The  Labor  Market.  New  York:  Mac¬ 
millan,  1919.  Pp.  338. 

Slichter,  Samuel  H.,  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor.  New  York: 
Appleton,  1919.  Pp.  460. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT  AND  VAGRANCY 

Beveridge,  W.  H.,  Unemployment:  A  Problem  of  Industry. 

London:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1909.  Pp.  317. 

Bliss,  W.  D.  P.,  What  Is  Bone  for  the  Unemployed  in  European 
Countries.  United  States  Labor  Bull.  No.  j6  (1908),  pp. 
741-934- 

Booth,  William,  The  Vagrant  and  the  Unemployable.  London: 
1909.  Pp.  79. 

Dawson,  W.  H.,  The  Vagrancy  Problem.  London:  P.  S 
King  &  Son,  1910.  Pp.  270. 

Hunter,  Robert,  Property.  New  York:  Macmillan,  1912. 
Pp.  380. 

Kelly,  Edmond,  The  Elimination  of  the  Tramp.  New  York: 

Putnam  &  Sons,  1908.  Pp.  in. 

Laws  of  Various  States  Relating  to  Vagrancy. 

Laubach,  Frank  C.,  Why  There  Are  Vagrants.  New  York: 
University  of  Columbia  Press,  1916.  Pp.  128. 


APPENDIXES 


293 


Lewis,  Burdette  G.,  The  Offender,  and  His  Relations  to  Law 
and  Society.  New  York:  Harper,  1921.  Pp.  38a 
Lewis,  O.  F.,  “Vagrancy  in  the  United  States,”  Proceedings  of 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections  (1907), 
pp.  52-70. 

Marsh,  Benjamin  C.,  “Causes  of  Vagrancy  and  Methods  of 
Eradication,”  Annals  of  the  Amer.  Acad .  of  Pol.  and  Soc. 
Science ,  Vol.  XXIII,  No.  3,  pp.  445-56.  Philadelphia: 
1904. 

Massachusetts  Association  of  Relief  Officers,  Report  on  Best 
Methods  of  Healing  with  Tramps  and  Wayfarers ,  1901. 

“The  Men  We  Lodge,”  Report  of  the  Advisory  Social  Service 
Committee  of  the  Municipal  Lodging  House.  New  York 
City:  Dept,  of  Public  Charities,  1915.  Pp.  42. 

Nichols,  Malcolm,  “National  Aspects  of  the  Transient  Prob¬ 
lem,”  The  Family,  III  (June,  1922),  89-91. 

Ostwald,  Hans  Otto,  Hie  Bekampfung  der  Landstreicherei. 

Stuttgart:  R.  Lutz,  1903.  Pp.  278. 

Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Affairs.  Portland,  Ore.: 
Wood  Yard,  1915. 

Report  of  the  Mayor  s  Committee  on  Unemployment.  New  York 
City:  1917.  Pp.  132. 

Wolfe,  Albert  B.,  The  Lodging  Problem  in  Boston.  Boston: 
Houghton  Mifflin,  1906.  Pp.  200. 

THE  I.W.W.  AND  THE  CASUAL  LABORER 

Brooks,  John  Graham,  American  Syndicalism.  New  York: 
Macmillan,  1913.  Pp.  264. 

Brissenden,  Paul  F.,  The  I.W.W.:  A  Study  of  American 
Syndicalism.  New  York:  University  of  Columbia,  1920. 
Pp.  438. 

Hoxie,  R.  F.,  “The  Truth  about  the  I.W.W.,”  four,  of  Pol. 

Econ .,  XXI  (November,  1913),  785-97. 

I.W.W.  Song  Book.  Chicago:  The  Equity  Press,  1922. 
Preamble  and  Constitution  of  the  I.W.W.  Chicago:  General 
I.W.W.  Headquarters,  1921.  Pp.  69. 

St.  John,  Vincent,  The  I.W.W.,  Its  History,  Structure  and 
Methods.  Chicago:  The  Equity  Press. 

Tridon,  Andre,  The  New  Unionism.  New  York:  Huebsch, 
1913.  Pp.  198. 


294 


THE  HOBO 


MATERIALS  FOR  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  HOBO  AND  THE  TRAMP 

Brown,  Edwin  A.,  “Broke”  the  Man  without  a  Dime.  Chicago: 

Brown  &  Howell,  1913.  Pp.  370- 
Da  vies,  William  H.,  Autobiography  of  a  Super-Tramp.  New 
York:  A.  A.  Knopf,  1917.  Pp.  345. 

Ellis,  Havelock,  Studies  in  the  Psychology  of  Sex:  Sex  Inversion. 

II,  391.  Philadelphia:  Davis,  1915. 

Forbes,  James,  “  Jockers  and  the  Schools  They  Keep,”  Charities 
Survey ,  XI  (1903),  432. 

Flynt  (Willard),  Josiah,  My  Life.  New  York:  Outing  Pub¬ 
lishing  Co.,  1908. 

Flynt  (Willard),  Josiah,  Tramping  with  Tramps.  New  York: 
Century,  1899.  Pp.  398. 

Howard,  Oliver  Otis  (Maj.  Gen.,  U.S.  Army),  “The  Menace 
of  Coxyism,”  North  Amer.  Rev.,  CLVIII  (1894),  687-96. 
Kemp,  Harry,  The  Cry  of  Youth.  New  York:  Mitchell, 
Kennerley,  1914.  Pp.  140. 

Kemp,  Harry,  Tramping  on  Life.  New  York:  Boni  &  Live- 
right,  1922.  Pp.  43 8  • 

Knibbs,  H.  H.,  Songs  of  the  Outlands.  New  York:  Houghton, 
Mifflin  Co.,  1914.  Pp.  73. 

Lindsay,  Vachel,  Handy  Book  for  Beggars.  New  York:  Mac¬ 
millan,  1916.  Pp.  205. 

London,  Jack,  The  Road.  New  York:  Macmillan,  1907. 
Pp.  224. 

London,  Jack,  War  on  the  Classes.  New  York:  Macmillan, 
1905.  Pp.  278. 

McCook,  J.  J.,  “A  Census  of  Tramps  and  Its  Revelations,” 
Forum ,  XV,  753. 

McGregor,  Tracy  W.,  Twenty  Thousand  Men.  Detroit: 

McGregor  Institute,  1922.  Pp.  29. 

Mullin,  Glen,  “Adventures  of  a  Scholar  Tramp,”  Century 
Magazine ,  Vol.  CV  (February  and  March). 

Service,  Robert  W.,  The  Spell  of  the  Yukons.  New  York: 

Barse  &  Hopkins,  1907.  Pp.  99. 

Wyckoff,  W.  A.,  The  Workers:  The  East.  New  York:  Scrib¬ 
ners,  1897.  Pp.  270. 

Wyckoff,  W.  A.,  The  Workers:  The  West.  New  York:  Scrib¬ 
ners,  1898.  Pp.  380. 


APPENDIXES 


295 


STUDIES  OF  THE  HOMELESS  MAN  IN  CHICAGO 

Anderson,  Nels,  “Cases  Studies  of  Homeless  Men  in  Chicago” 
(typewritten  manuscript  in  office  of  Chicago  Council  of 
Social  Agencies  and  Department  of  Sociology,  University 
of  Chicago). 

Anderson,  Nels,  “The  Juvenile  and  the  Tramp,”  'Journal  of 
Criminal  Law  and  Criminology ,  Vol.  XIV  (1923-24). 

“The  Chicago  Municipal  Lodging  House  for  Men,”  in  the  Report 
and  Handbook  of  the  Department  of  Health  of  the  City  of 
Chicago  (1911-18),  pp.  1076-81. 

“Fifty  Cheap  Lodging  Houses,”  First  Semi-Annual  Report  of 
the  Department  of  Public  Welfare  of  Chicago  (March,  1915), 
pp.  66-73.  . 

Foley,  R.  W.,  “The  Shifting  Population  of  Homeless  Men  and 
the  Cheap  Lodging  House”  (typewritten  manuscript  of 
twenty-nine  pages  in  Department  of  Sociology,  University 
of  Chicago). 

Report  to  the  Mayor  and  Alderman  by  the  Chicago  Municipal 
Markets  Commission  on  a  Practical  Program  for  Relieving 
Destitution  and  Unemployment  in  the  City  of  Chicago ,  De¬ 
cember  28,  1914. 

Robins,  Raymond,  “What  Constitutes  a  Model  Municipal 
Lodging  House,”  Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction  (1904),  pp.  155-66. 

Solenberger,  Alice  W.,  One  Thousand  Homeless  Men.  New 
York:  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  1911.  Pp.  374. 

Stead,  William  T.,  If  Christ  Should  Come  to  Chicago}  Chicago: 
Laird  &  Lee,  1894.  Pp.  463. 

IThe  first  chapter  describes  the  homeless-man  areas  of  1893. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


“A  No.  i”  ioo 
Adler,  Herman  M.,  73 
Agencies,  conflicting  policies  of,  15 
Alcoholism,  66,  67,  134-35 
American  Express,  166 
American  Legion,  260 
Ashleigh,  Charles,  205 
Association  of  hobo  with  women,  138 
Associations:  I.B.W.A.,  230,  235-40; 
I.W.W., 230-35;  J.P.A.,ix;  M.W.U., 
230 

Atkins,  Brigadier  J.  E.,  171,  180-81 
Attitude  of  perverts,  148 

Ball,  Charles  B.,  260 
Ballot,  hobo  regard  for,  153 
Barber  colleges,  37-38 
Barrel-house,  27 
Begging,  47,  49,  50 
Bills  of  fare  on  “stem,”  34 
Bloch,  Iwan,  144 
Boarding  companies,  130-31 
Bookstore,  38 
Borrowing,  49 

Boy  tramp,  and  perversion,  145;  and 
wanderlust,  83 
Boyd,  Charles  J.,  120 
Boys  and  tramp  life,  85 
Bread  lines,  258 
Brennan,  Pat,  208 
“Bughouse  Square,”  9-10 
Bum,  the,  98 

“Carrying  the  banner,”  53 
Catholic  charities,  259 
Christian  Industrial  League,  27-28, 
260 

Chicago,  a  winter  shelter,  12-13 
Chicago  labor  exchange,  12,  no 
Chicago  plan  for  homeless  men,  271-79 
Chicago  Urban  League,  259 
Civil  authorities  and  tramp,  163-64 
Clearing  house  for  homeless  men,  122, 
136 

Clothing  stores,  3  5-36 
“Coffee  an’”  level,  40 
Cooking  in  jungles,  22-23 
College,”  “Hobo,  172,  173,  174,  175, 
177,  227,  237 


Construction  work,  107 
Court  experience  of  hobo,  165-66 
Criminal,  hobos  not,  164-65 
Crises  in  life  of  person,  77-79 
Crop  moving,  107 
Cubicles  or  “cages,”  30 

Dawes,  General  C.  G.,  28 
Day  in  the  jungles,  21-25 
Dragstedt,  A.  W.,  25  n.,  171,  177-78, 
212 

Drug  addicts,  67-68,  not  hobos,  69 

Educating  the  proletariat,  219 
Egocentricity,  74-76 
Ellis,  Havelock,  144 
Employment  agencies,  comparison  of, 
1 1 5-17;  private,  m-12;  public, 
114-16 

Employment  service,  need  of,  122 
Evangelists  and  soap-boxers,  217 

Faking,  street,  43 
Farmer-Labor  Party,  152 
Flops,  co-operative,  238-39 
Flynt,  Josiah,  94,  146 
Fortune-tellers,  39 
“Free-lance”  speakers,  216,  218 
Free-union  marriages,  141-42 

“Getting  by,”  a  game,  57,  meaning 
of,  40-41 

Giovannitti,  Arturo,  201 
Grafts,  old  and  new,  44 
Grant  Park,  in  summer,  1 1 
Greenstein,  “Mother”  139,  171,  1 83— 
84 

Handicapped  men,  125-28 
Harvey-Dammarell  hotels,  28-29 
Harvey-McGuire  hotels,  28 
“Hat  trick,”  the,  45-46 
Hazards  of  casual  work,  129 
Health  Department,  131,  132,  133 
Healy,  William,  70 
Hill,  Joe,  208,  209 

Hobo,  definition  of,  87-89;  and  drink, 
135;  and  exposure,  136;  health  in 

[299 


300 


THE  HOBO 


town,  131-33;  hostility  to  in  small 
town,  26;  names  for,  93;  nativity 
of,  150-51;  origin  of,  88;  pioneer, 
and  frontiersman,  92;  poor  beggar, 
49;  and  religion,  262;  status  of, 
167;  voting,  151-52;  what  he 
reads,  187-89;  worker,  91 
Hobohemia,  defined,  3 
“Hogan’s  Flop,”  31-33 
Home,  why  men  leave,  61  flf. 

Home  guard,  96-97;  types  of,  100-101 
Homeless  men,  and  the  law,  154; 

mostly  unmarried,  137 
Horsley,  Dan,  171,  175-77 
Housing  problem,  39 
How,  James  Eads,  88,  172,  174,  175, 
239 

I.B.W.A.,  230,  235-40;  Holding  Com¬ 
mittee,  237-38;  origin  of,  235-36; 
program  of,  236-37 
Industrial  attractions,  62;  fishing, 
107;  ice-harvesting,  108;  lumber¬ 
ing,  108;  sheep-shearing,  107-8 
Industrially  inadequate,  65 
Industry,  changes  in,  62-63;  hazards 
of,  65-66 

I.W.W.,  230-35;  literature  list,  1 87— 
88;  methods  and  appeal,  232-34; 
origin  of,  230;  periodicals,  1 91 ; 
program,  23 1;  treatment  in  Chi¬ 
cago,  235;  treatment  by  Ku  Klux 
Klan,  191 

“Jack  rolling,”  5,  51-52 
Jewish  Social  Service  Bureau,  259 
Job  hunting,  109 
Jobs  sold,  estimate  of,  m 
Jockers,  103 
Johnson,  Glenn  R.,  72 
Jungle,  buzzard,  103;  a  day  in,  21- 
25;  democracy  in,  19;  laws  of, 
20-21;  location  and  types  of,  16- 
17;  on  lake  front,  10;  trial  in, 
24-25;  womanless,  18 
Juvenile  Protective  Association,  ix 

Kelihor,  T.  T.,  160 

Kelly,  John  X.,  171,  173-74,  242, 
243-46 


Kemp,  Harry,  196,  199 
“Killing  time,”  215-16 
Klein,  Nicholas,  88 
Knibbs,  H.  H.,  198 

Lady  barbers,  38 

Langsman,  Charles  W.,  171,  178-79 
Laubach,  F.  C.,  126 
Leadership  in  Hobohemia,  184 
Lescohier,  Don  D.,  119 
Library  privileges,  185 
Life,  loss  of,  161-62 
Light  work,  129 
Living,  cheap  in  city,  13 
Lodging-houses,  municipal,  127,  134, 
260-61;  quasi-charitable,  27-28; 
sanitary  conditions  of,  131-32; 
types  of,  27 

Medical  attention,  free,  13;  on  the 
job,  130 

Melis,  Lewis,  206 
Mental  tests,  71-73 
Migratory  Workers’  Union,  230;  240- 
41;  aims  and  objects,  241,  247 
Miller,  H.  A.,  82  n. 

Missions,  250-58;  converts  of,  253- 
54;  competition  between,  250; 
migratory  national,  252;  perma¬ 
nent  local,  251;  soliciting  funds, 
252;  “wild  cat,”  253 
Mission  stiffs,  98,  103 
Mobility,  complicates  problem,  15; 
effects  of,  120,  248-49;  of  handi¬ 
capped  men,  128 
“Mooching,”  50 
Movies  and  burlesque,  37 
Mullenbach,  James,  260 
Municipal  Lodging  House  (Chicago), 
260-61;  (New  York),  127,  134 
Mushfaker,  99 

Myers,  Dr.  Johnston,  171,  181-83 

National  program,  270 
Negro  hobos,  8 

New  York  Central  Railroad,  166 
News,  Hobo ,  177,  185,  186,  187,  192 

Odd  jobs,  in  city,  41 
Old  men,  69 


INDEX 


301 


“One  Big  Union,”  231 
Open  forums,  226-28 
Organizations  among  hobos,  230; 
failure  of,  247-49 

“Panhandling,”  50 
Parle,  R.  E.,  82  n. 

Partnerships  among  hobos,  147 
Passing  the  hat,  223 
Patriotism,  151 
Pawn  shops,  36 
Peddling  on  street,  42 
Personal  degradation,  57,  65 
Personality,  defects  of,  72-76 
Perversion  among  tramps,  144-47 
Pintner  and  Toops,  71,  72  n. 

Poems  and  ballads,  194-214;  “Away 
from  Town,”  199-200;  “Beaten 
Men,”  205;  Bum,”  “The,  201-2; 
Bum  on  the  Rods  and  the  Bum  on 
the  Plush,”  “The,  202;  Dish¬ 
washer,”  “The,  201-2;  Gila  Mon¬ 
ster  Route,”  “The,  194-96; 
“Harvest  War  Song,”  208;  Hobo 
Knows,”  “The,  203;  Hobo’s  Last 
Lament,”  “The,  212;  “Men  That 
Don’t  Fit  In,”  204;  “No  Matter 
Where  You  Go,”  213-14;  “Nothing 
to  Do  But  Go,”  198-99;  “One 
Day;  Some  Way,”  205;  “Opti¬ 
mism,”  213;  “Portland  County 
Jail,”  21 1 ;  Preacher  and  the  Slave,” 
“The,  210;  Slave  Market,”  “The, 
206-7;  Tramp,”  “The,  209;  Tramp 
Confession,”  “The,  196-98;  Wan¬ 
derer,”  “The,  206 

Police,  encounters  with  hobos,  156- 
58;  methods  of,  155,  160,  164; 
private,  155;  types  of,  154-55 
Poorhouse,  aversion  of  hobo  to,  56; 
Population,  turnover  in  Hobohemia, 

13-H 

Program  for  future  action,  279 
“Proletariat,”  176 
Property,  destruction  of,  161 
Prostitutes,  “second  raters,”  143 
Prostitution,  142-43 
Punk,  99,  103 

Queen,  Stuart  A.,  26  n. 


Racial  discrimination,  81 
Radical  press,  186 
Raid  on  jungles,  23-24 
Railroad  yards,  8 

Reitman,  Ben  L.,  87,  102,  134  n., 
143,  171,  172-73 

Religion,  practical,  182;  and  love, 
179;  and  work,  180 
Restaurants  and  lunchrooms,  33-35; 

sanitary  conditions  of,  35 
Robins,  Raymond,  260 
Rountree,  B.  Seebohm,  64  n. 

Sabotage,  121 
Saloons,  38-39 

Salvation  Army,  27-28,  250,  260 
Scissor  Bill,  99 
Seasonal  fluctuations,  63 
Seasonal  workers,  89-90 
Second-hand  clothing,  35-36 
Service,  Robert  W.,  203 
Sex  isolation  of  hobo,  144,  149 
Seymour,  James,  200 
Short  jobs,  118-19 
Sickness  and  disease,  133 
Soap-boxers,  ethics  and  tactics  of, 
222-24;  and  opinion,  228-29;  his 
role  on  stand,  229;  versatility  of, 
224-26 

Social  center  for  hobos,  11;  in  the 
jungles,  16,  26 

Solenberger,  Alice  W.,  9  n.,  71,  87, 
125-26 

Solidarity ,  the  Industrial,  190-91 
State  farm  colony,  277 
Stealing,  petty,  51 

Street  speaking,  216-20;  lectures,  220 

Strike  jobs,  120-21 

Summary  and  findings,  265-79 

Terman,  L.  M.,  71  n. 

Testimonies  of  converts,  256 
Thornburn,  Charles,  205 
Tramp,  the,  93-95 
Tramping,  a  man’s  game,  137 
Tucker,  St.  John,  87 
Tugwell,  Rexford,  82 
Types,  rendezvous  of,  5,  7,  9;  of 
homeless  men,  105;  numbers  of 
each  in  Chicago,  105-6;  of  peddlers, 
42-43 


302 


THE  HOBO 


Unemployables,  104 
Unemployment,  64-65 
United  Charities,  259 

Vagrancy,  explanation  of,  85-86;  in 
small  towns,  163 

Van  de  Water,  John,  171,  179-80 
Vaudeville,  37 
Venereal  disease,  133-34 

Walsh,  Michael  C.,  171,  174-75, 
242 


Wanderlust,  82-83 
Welfare  organizations,  259-60 
Westbrook,  Warden  Wesley,  165 
White,  Henry  A.,  203 
Winter,  “getting  by”  in,  52-53 
Women  and  homeless  men,  138-42 
Work,  a  national  problem,  121-22 
“Working  the  folks,”  46-47 
Writings  of  hobos,  188-90 

Younger  hobos,  1 40-41 


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The  hobo;  the  sociology  of  the  homeless 


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